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20-letter words containing a, d, r, s

  • cylinder head gasket — (in an automobile engine) a gasket placed between the cylinder and the cylinder heads to avoid leaks of coolant and compression
  • cytosine arabinoside — cytarabine.
  • darkfield microscope — kind of microscope
  • database transaction — (database)   A set of related changes applied to a database. The term typically implies that either all of the changes should be applied or, in the event of an error, none of them, i.e. the transaction should be atomic. Atomicity is one of the ACID properties a transaction can have, another is isolation - preventing interference between processes trying to access the database cocurrently. This is usually achieved by some form of locking - where one process takes exclusive control of a database table or row for the duration of the transaction, preventing other processes from accessing the locked data. The canonical example of a transaction is transferring money between two bank accounts by subtracting it from one and adding it to the other. Some relational database management systems require the user to explicitly start a transaction and then either commit it (if all the individual steps are successful) or roll it back (if there are any errors).
  • de facto segregation — racial, ethnic, or other segregation resulting from societal differences between groups, as socioeconomic or political disparity, without institutionalized legislation intended to segregate.
  • defense data network — (DDN) A global communications network serving the US Department of Defense. Composed of MILNET, other portions of the Internet, and classified networks which are not part of the Internet. The DDN is used to connect military installations and is managed by the Defense Information Systems Agency.
  • democratic socialism — socialism, or a modified form of socialism, achieved by a gradual transition by and under democratic political processes.
  • depreciation expense — A depreciation expense is the amount deducted from gross profit to allow for a reduction in the value of something because of its age or how much it has been used.
  • descriptive notation — a method of denoting the squares on the chessboard in which each player names the files from the pieces that stand on them at the opening and numbers the ranks away from himself
  • desmopressin acetate — a vasopressin analogue, C 46 H 64 N 14 O 12 S 2 , used in the treatment of diabetes insipidus.
  • dickless workstation — (abuse)   Extremely pejorative hackerism for "diskless workstation".
  • diels-alder reaction — the reaction in which a conjugated diene combines with a double or triple bond of a given compound to form a ring of six carbon atoms.
  • differential housing — the casing that houses the differential of a motor vehicle
  • digital data service — (communications)   (DDS) The class of service offered by telecommunications companies for transmitting digital data as opposed to voice.
  • digital service unit — data service unit
  • diplomatic secretary — secretary (def 5).
  • diplomatic-secretary — secretary (def 5).
  • direct memory access — (architecture)   (DMA) A facility of some architectures which allows a peripheral to read and write memory without intervention by the CPU. DMA is a limited form of bus mastering.
  • directory assistance — a telephone company service that furnishes telephone directory information over the telephone.
  • directory user agent — (DUA) The software that accesses the X.500 Directory Service on behalf of the directory user. The directory user may be a person or another software element.
  • disability insurance — insurance providing income to a policyholder who is disabled and cannot work.
  • disciplinary hearing — a hearing at which the conduct of a member of an organization, profession etc is examined and a punishment may be handed down
  • discretionary income — money for luxuries
  • diskless workstation — (computer, networking)   A personal computer or workstation which has neither a hard disk nor floppy disk drive and which performs all file access via a local area network connection to a file server. The lowest level bootstrap code is stored in non-volatile storage. This uses a simple protocol such as BOOTP to request and download more sophisticated boot code and eventually, the operating system. The archtypal product was the 3Station developed by Bob Metcalfe at 3Com. Another example was the Sun 3/50. Diskless workstations are ideal when many users are running the same application. They are small, quiet, more reliable than products with disks, and help prevent both the theft of data and the introduction of viruses since the software and data available on them is controlled by the network administrator or system administrator. They do however rely on a server which becomes a disadvantage if it is heavily loaded or down. See also breath-of-life packet.
  • dispersion hardening — the strengthening of an alloy as a result of the presence of fine particles in the lattice
  • displacement current — the rate of change, at any point in space, of electric displacement with time.
  • disproportionateness — The state or quality of being disproportionate or out of proportion.
  • disruptive discharge — the sudden, large increase in current through an insulating medium resulting from complete failure of the medium under electrostatic stress.
  • distress merchandise — goods sold below the prevailing price in order to raise cash quickly or to meet some other financial emergency.
  • distributed database — A collection of several different databases that looks like a single database to the user. An example is the Internet Domain Name System (DNS).
  • distributed practice — learning with reasonably long intervals between separate occasions of learning
  • distribution channel — trade: retailer
  • distributive lattice — (theory)   A lattice for which the least upper bound (lub) and greatest lower bound (glb) operators distribute over one another so that a lub (b glb c) == (a lub c) glb (a lub b) and vice versa. ("lub" and "glb" are written in LateX as \sqcup and \sqcap).
  • district of columbia — a federal area in the E United States, on the Potomac, coextensive with the federal capital, Washington. 69 sq. mi. (179 sq. km). Abbreviation: DC (for use with zip code), D.C.
  • diverticular disease — any disease of the colon involving the presence of diverticula
  • do someone a service — If you do someone a service, you do something that helps or benefits them.
  • double-aspect theory — a monistic theory that holds that mind and body are not distinct substances but merely different aspects of a single substance
  • draw close/draw near — If an event or period of time is drawing closer or is drawing nearer, it is approaching.
  • draw the short straw — to be the person (as in drawing lots) to whom an unwelcome task or fate falls
  • drum and bugle corps — a marching band of drum players and buglers.
  • drunk and disorderly — If someone is charged with being drunk and disorderly, they are charged with being drunk and behaving in a noisy, offensive, or violent way in public.
  • duck-billed dinosaur — hadrosaur.
  • due process (of law) — the course of legal proceedings established by the legal system of a nation or state to protect individual rights
  • dun & bradstreet — an agency furnishing subscribers with information as to the financial standing and credit rating of businesses
  • early modern english — the English language represented in printed documents of the period starting with Caxton (1476) and ending with Dryden (1700).
  • early sunday morning — a painting (1930) by Edward Hopper.
  • edward the confessor — Saint, 1002?–66, English king 1042–66: founder of Westminster Abbey.
  • electoral boundaries — the way that a country or area is divided for the purposes of voting in an election
  • electrohydrodynamics — (physics) the study of the dynamics of electrically conducting fluid.
  • endorsement in blank — an endorsement on a bill of exchange, cheque, etc, naming no payee and thus making the endorsed sum payable to the bearer
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