24-letter words containing a, d, s, c
- digital switched network — (communications) (DSN) The completely digital version of the PSTN.
- diphenylaminechlorarsine — adamsite.
- display screen equipment — Visual Display Unit
- disturbance of the peace — a malicious and willful intrusion on the peace and quiet of a community or neighbourhood
- domain-specific language — (language) A machine-processable language whose terms are derived from a domain model and that is used for the definition of components or software architectures supporting that domain. A domain-specific language is often used as input to an application generator.
- domestic relations court — in some states, a court with jurisdiction over matters involving relations within the family or household, as between husband and wife or parent and child
- domestic-relations court — court of domestic relations.
- double overhead camshaft — a pair of overhead camshafts, one to operate the intake valves and the other to operate the exhaust valves. Abbreviation: DOHC.
- double-crested cormorant — a North American cormorant, Phalacrocorax auritus, having tufts of black and white feathers on the sides of the head.
- ductal carcinoma in situ — a form of breast cancer originating in the breast itself rather than spreading from another site
- dutch west india company — a Dutch merchant company chartered in 1621 to carry on trade with Africa, the West Indies, North and South America, and Australia.
- edetate calcium disodium — a chelating agent, C 10 H 12 CaN 2 Na 2 O 8 , used in medicine to treat lead poisoning.
- educational psychologist — a person trained in educational psychology
- effort adjustment factor — (programming) (EAF) A term used in COCOMO to calculate a cost driver attribute's effect on a project. It is the product of the effort multipliers corresponding to each of the cost drivers for the project.
- endotracheal anaesthesia — a method of administering gaseous anaesthetics to animals through a tube inserted into the trachea
- entry sequenced data set — (database) (ESDS) An IBM straight sequential flat file (like QSAM) but externally managed via IDCAMS. ESDS is used in VSAM.
- face as long as a fiddle — a dismal or gloomy facial expression
- failure-directed testing — (programming) (Or "heuristics testing") Software testing based on the knowledge of the types of errors made in the past that are likely for the system under test.
- federal power commission — FPC.
- federal reserve district — the district served by a certain Federal Reserve Bank.
- federal trade commission — FTC.
- ferdinand lewis alcindor — (Ferdinand) Lew(is, Jr.) original name of Abdul-Jabbar.
- footloose and fancy-free — If you describe someone as footloose and fancy-free, you mean that they are not married or in a similar relationship, and you therefore consider them to have very few responsibilities or commitments.
- free and accepted masons — a member of a widely distributed secret order (Free and Accepted Masons) having for its object mutual assistance and the promotion of brotherly love among its members.
- geographical determinism — the theory that human activity is determined by geographical conditions
- give sb a song and dance — A song and dance act is a performance in which a person or group of people sing and dance.
- glycogen storage disease — any of several inherited disorders of glycogen metabolism that result in excess accumulation of glycogen in various organs of the body.
- graduated pension scheme — (between 1961 and 1975) an earnings-related pension scheme which was based on the amount of an employee's National Insurance contributions
- great crested flycatcher — a North American flycatcher, Myiarchus crinitus, noted for its use of the castoff skins of snakes in building its nest.
- hydrochlorofluorocarbons — Plural form of hydrochlorofluorocarbon.
- ichthyophthirius-disease — ich.
- in someone's good graces — elegance or beauty of form, manner, motion, or action: We watched her skate with effortless grace across the ice. Synonyms: attractiveness, charm, gracefulness, comeliness, ease, lissomeness, fluidity. Antonyms: stiffness, ugliness, awkwardness, clumsiness; klutziness.
- industrial correspondent — a journalist who specializes in reporting the industrial news
- international morse code — a form of Morse code used in international radiotelegraphy.
- internet access provider — (networking, company) (IAP) A company or other origanisation which provides access to the Internet to businesses and/or consumers. An IAP purchases an Internet link from another company that has a direct link to the Internet and resells portions of that bandwidth to the general public. For example, an IAP may purchase a T1 link (1.544Mb/s) and resell that bandwidth in chunks consisting of ISDN (64Kb/s, 128Kb/s) and analog modems (14.4Kb/s, 28.8Kb/s). The IAP's customer base is likely to include both businesses and individuals. Individual customers usually connect to the IAP via a modem and telephone line to a (preferably local) point of presence. An IAP may also be an Internet Service Provider.
- iterated function system — (graphics) (IFS) A class of fractals that yield natural-looking forms like ferns or snowflakes. Iterated Function Systems use a very easy transformation that is done recursively.
- keyed sequenced data set — (database) (KSDS) One of the access methods used by VSAM. KSDS has indexes and data split into CI (Control Interval) in CA (Control Area) and multi index levelled. Forward and backward compression is applied to key values.
- knock one's head against — to have a violent or unpleasant encounter with (adverse facts or circumstances)
- la belle dame sans merci — a ballad (1819) by Keats.
- least common denominator — the smallest number that is a common denominator of a given set of fractions.
- leave much to be desired — be inadequate
- licensed practical nurse — a person who has graduated from an accredited school of nursing and has become licensed to provide basic nursing care under the supervision of a physician or registered nurse. Abbreviation: LPN.
- liquid components of gas — Liquid components of gas are associated hydrocarbons in natural gas, which include ethane, propane, and butane.
- local loopback addresses — The special Internet address, 127.0.0.1, defined by the Internet Protocol. A host can use local the loopback address to send messages to itself.
- logical block addressing — (storage) (LBA) A hard disk sector addressing scheme used on all SCSI hard disks, and on ATA-2 conforming IDE hard disks. The addressing conversion is performed by the hard disk firmware. Prior to LBA, combined limitations of IBM PC BIOS and ATA restricted the useful capacity of IDE hard disks on IBM PCs and compatibles to 1024 cylinders * 63 sectors per track * 16 heads * 512 bytes per sector = 528 million bytes = 504 megabytes. Modern BIOSes select LBA mode automatically, and work around the 1024-cylinder BIOS limit by representing a hard disk to the OS as having e.g. half as many cylinders and twice as many heads. However, there is still an unbreakable BIOS disk size limit of 1024 cylinders * 63 sectors per track * 256 heads * 512 bytes per sector = 8 gigabytes, but modern OSes (including Windows 9x, Windows NT and Linux) are not affected by it, since they issue direct LBA-based calls, bypassing the BIOS hard disk services completely.
- long-spined sea scorpion — Cottus bubalis or Taurulus bubalis
- lunar (excursion) module — the component of the Apollo spacecraft used to carry astronauts to the moon's surface and return them to the command and service modules in lunar orbit
- machine independent sail — (MAINSAIL) From XIDAK, Palo Alto CA, +1 (415) 855 9271.
- make ducks and drakes of — to use recklessly; squander or waste
- mandy rice-davis applies — (chat) (MRDA) An acronym used to imply that someone is lying to protect their own interests. During the trial of Stephen Ward (who was charged with living off the immoral earnings of Christine Keeler and Rice-Davies), the prosecuting counsel pointed out that Lord Astor denied any involvement with her and Rice-Davies replied, "Well, he would, wouldn't he?"