15-letter words containing a, d, p, e
- bitmapped image — a computer image that is held in memory as a series of colored dots in a grid, each dot represented by one or more bits.
- bits and pieces — You can use bits and pieces or bits and bobs to refer to a collection of different things.
- bladder campion — a European caryophyllaceous plant, Silene vulgaris, having white flowers with an inflated calyx
- blasting powder — a form of gunpowder made with sodium nitrate instead of saltpeter, used chiefly for blasting rock, ore, etc.
- board of parole — an agency that determines which prisoners are to be released on parole
- boiled potatoes — potatoes, usually peeled, cooked in boiling water
- braille display — (hardware) (Or "refreshable braille display", "refreshable display") An electromechanical device that renders braille with tiny, independently controlled pins used to represent the state of dots in braille cells. Each pin, in its "on" state, raises above the top of its hole in the screen; in its "off" state, it drops below the top of its hole. Older systems used tiny solenoids to control the state of the pins; modern systems are piezoelectric. Typical dimensions of a braille display are 1 line of 40 cells, each cell of two-by-eight dots.
- break-in period — a period during which certain restrictions or moderation in operating should be followed, as the avoidance of high speed, rapid acceleration, or severe braking for a new automobile.
- butter spreader — a small knife with a wide, flat blade, as for spreading butter on bread or rolls.
- cabinet pudding — a steamed suet pudding containing dried fruit
- cache la poudre — a river in N Colorado, flowing N and E to the South Platte River. 126 miles (203 km) long.
- calf diphtheria — a disease of the throat in young calves caused by Fusobacterium necrophorum, resulting in breathing difficulty and a painful cough
- camphorated oil — a liniment consisting of camphor and peanut oil, used as a counterirritant
- cardinal spider — a large house spider, Tegenaria parietina
- cartridge paper — an uncoated type of drawing or printing paper, usually made from bleached sulphate wood pulp with an addition of esparto grass
- casters-up mode — [IBM, probably from slang belly up] Yet another synonym for "broken" or "down". Usually connotes a major failure. A system (hardware or software) which is "down" may be already being restarted before the failure is noticed, whereas one which is "casters up" is usually a good excuse to take the rest of the day off (as long as you're not responsible for fixing it).
- celandine poppy — a poppy, Stylophorum diphyllum, of the east-central U.S., having one pair of deeply lobed leaves and yellow flowers.
- centipede grass — a slow-growing grass, Eremochloa ophiuroides, introduced into the U.S. from China and used for lawns in warm areas.
- cephalochordate — any chordate animal of the subphylum Cephalochordata, having a fishlike body and no vertebral column; lancelet
- chandler period — the period of the oscillation (Chandler wobble) of the earth's axis, varying between 416 and 433 days.
- chenopodiaceous — belonging to the Chenopodiaceae, formerly the goosefoot family, now considered part of the amaranth family of plants.
- chop and change — When people chop and change, they keep changing their minds about what to do or how to act.
- chopped almonds — almonds cut into small pieces
- chorale prelude — a composition for organ using a chorale as a cantus firmus or as the basis for variations
- christadelphian — a member of a Christian millenarian sect founded in the US about 1848, holding that only the just will enter eternal life, that the wicked will be annihilated, and that the ignorant, the unconverted, and infants will not be raised from the dead
- chromium-plated — having been plated with chromium
- cinematographed — a motion-picture projector.
- cineradiography — the filming of motion pictures through a fluoroscope or x-ray machine.
- class president — the student president of a school or college class
- clouded leopard — a feline, Neofelis nebulosa, of SE Asia and Indonesia with a yellowish-brown coat marked with darker spots and blotches
- completion date — (in Britain) the date on which the sale of a piece of property is final
- complicatedness — composed of elaborately interconnected parts; complex: complicated apparatus for measuring brain functions.
- compound magnet — a magnet consisting of two or more separate magnets placed together with like poles pointing in the same direction.
- computer dating — the use of computers by dating agencies to match their clients
- connected graph — (mathematics) A graph such that there is a path between any pair of nodes (via zero or more other nodes). Thus if we start from any node and visit all nodes connected to it by a single edge, then all nodes connected to any of them, and so on, then we will eventually have visited every node in the connected graph.
- corn-leaf aphid — a green aphid, Rhopalosiphum maidis, widely distributed in the U.S.: a pest of corn and other grasses.
- corps de ballet — In ballet, the corps de ballet is the group of dancers who dance together, in contrast to the main dancers, who dance by themselves.
- cottage pudding — plain cake covered with a sweet sauce
- coup de theatre — a dramatic turn of events, esp in a play
- cowper's glands — two small yellowish glands near the prostate that secrete a mucous substance into the urethra during sexual stimulation in males
- credibility gap — A credibility gap is the difference between what a person says or promises and what they actually think or do.
- crescent-shaped — having the shape of a crescent
- critical period — a period in a lifetime during which a specific stage of development usually occurs. If it fails to do so, it cannot readily occur afterwards
- cyanide capsule — a capsule containing cyanide, traditionally given to spies and others so that they can commit suicide to avoid capture
- cyanide process — a process for recovering gold and silver from ores by treatment with a weak solution of sodium cyanide
- cyclopentadiene — a colourless liquid unsaturated cyclic hydrocarbon obtained in the cracking of petroleum hydrocarbons and the distillation of coal tar: used in the manufacture of plastics and insecticides. Formula: C5H6
- d. c. power lab — The former site of SAIL. This name was very funny because the obvious connection to electrical engineering was nonexistent - the lab was named after a Donald C. Power. Compare Marginal Hacks.
- dadchelor party — a party primarily attended by men and held to honour and present gifts to a prospective father
- daguerreotyping — Present participle of daguerreotype.
- daguerreotypist — an obsolete photographic process, invented in 1839, in which a picture made on a silver surface sensitized with iodine was developed by exposure to mercury vapor.