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23-letter words containing a, d, u

  • debugging an empty file — (programming, humour)   A humourous definition of programming that considers a complete absence of any code as a bug to be fixed.
  • department of education — the department of the U.S. federal government that administers federal programs dealing with education: created in 1979, largely by transfer from part of the former Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. Abbreviation: ED.
  • deterministic automaton — (theory)   A finite-state automaton in which the overall course of the computation is completely determined by the program, the starting state, and the initial inputs. The class of problems solvable by such automata is the class P (see polynomial-time algorithm).
  • dichlorodifluoromethane — a colourless nonflammable gas easily liquefied by pressure: used as a propellant in aerosols and fire extinguishers and as a refrigerant. Formula: CCl2F2
  • dictionary of computing — Free On-line Dictionary of Computing
  • digital subscriber line — (communications, protocol)   (DSL, or Digital Subscriber Loop, xDSL - see below) A family of digital telecommunications protocols designed to allow high speed data communication over the existing copper telephone lines between end-users and telephone companies. When two conventional modems are connected through the telephone system (PSTN), it treats the communication the same as voice conversations. This has the advantage that there is no investment required from the telephone company (telco) but the disadvantage is that the bandwidth available for the communication is the same as that available for voice conversations, usually 64 kb/s (DS0) at most. The twisted-pair copper cables into individual homes or offices can usually carry significantly more than 64 kb/s but the telco needs to handle the signal as digital rather than analog. There are many implementation of the basic scheme, differing in the communication protocol used and providing varying service levels. The throughput of the communication can be anything from about 128 kb/s to over 8 Mb/s, the communication can be either symmetric or asymmetric (i.e. the available bandwidth may or may not be the same upstream and downstream). Equipment prices and service fees also vary considerably. The first technology based on DSL was ISDN, although ISDN is not often recognised as such nowadays. Since then a large number of other protocols have been developed, collectively referred to as xDSL, including HDSL, SDSL, ADSL, and VDSL. As yet none of these have reached very wide deployment but wider deployment is expected for 1998-1999.
  • digital subscriber loop — Digital Subscriber Line
  • dionysius of alexandria — ("the Great") a.d. c190–265, patriarch of Alexandria 247?–265?.
  • discontinuous variation — variation in phenotypic traits in which types are grouped into discrete categories with few or no intermediate phenotypes. Compare continuous variation.
  • dishonourable discharge — dismissal from the US armed forces by a court martial as a result of serious misconduct
  • disjunctive normal form — (DNF) A logical formula consisting of a disjunction of conjunctions where no conjunction contains a disjunction. E.g. the DNF of (A or B) and C is (A and C) or (B and C).
  • distributive bargaining — a negotiation process aimed at reaching a compromise agreement over how resources may be allocated between the parties
  • drummond of hawthornden — William. 1585–1649, Scottish poet, historian, and royalist pamphleteer
  • dsp32 assembly language — A high-level assembly language for the DSP32 Programmable DSP Chip.
  • dual sensory impairment — the condition of being affected by sight and hearing loss
  • duplication of the cube — the insoluble problem of constructing a cube having twice the volume of a given cube, using only a ruler and compass.
  • earthquake-proof design — Earthquake-proof design is design which will not be badly damaged by earthquakes or tsunamis.
  • eastern orthodox church — Orthodox Church (def 1).
  • eating your own dogfood — eating one's own dogfood
  • education correspondent — a journalist who reports news in the field of education or teaching
  • encapsulated postscript — (EPS) An extension of the PostScript graphics file format developed by Adobe Systems. EPS is used for PostScript graphics files that are to be incorporated into other documents. An EPS file includes pragmas (special PostScript comments) giving information such as the bounding box, page number and fonts used. On some computers, EPS files include a low resolution version of the PostScript image. On the Macintosh this is in PICT format, while on the IBM PC it is in TIFF or Microsoft Windows metafile format.
  • fifth marquis lansdowne — Henry Charles Keith, 5th Marquis of Lansdowne, Lansdowne, 5th Marquis of.
  • fish in troubled waters — any of various cold-blooded, aquatic vertebrates, having gills, commonly fins, and typically an elongated body covered with scales.
  • fluorochlorohydrocarbon — (organic chemistry) Any compound formally derived from a hydrocarbon by replacing some hydrogen atoms with fluorine and some with chlorine (at least one being retained).
  • friction reducing agent — A friction reducing agent is an additive used to reduce friction exerted downhole on tools and pipes.
  • fundamental interaction — any of the four basic interactions that occur in nature: the gravitational, electromagnetic, strong, and weak interactions
  • gamma-aminobutyric acid — GABA.
  • grand duchess charlotte — Grand Duchess (Charlotte Aldegonde Elise Marie Wilhelmine) 1896–1985, sovereign of Luxembourg 1919–64.
  • great black-backed gull — any of several white gulls, as Larus marinus (great black-backed gull) having a black back and wings.
  • guillain-barre syndrome — an uncommon, usually self-limited form of polyneuritis, occurring after a viral illness or immunization and manifested by loss of muscle strength, loss of or altered sensation and sometimes paralysis.
  • have struck/hit paydirt — If you say that someone has struck paydirt or has hit paydirt, you mean that they have achieved sudden success or gained a lot of money very quickly.
  • heaviside unit function — the function that is zero for any number less than zero and that is 1 for any number greater than or equal to zero.
  • hortense de beauharnais — Beauharnais, Eugénie Hortense de.
  • hunchback of notre dame — French Notre Dame de Paris. a novel (1831) by Victor Hugo.
  • hydrochlorofluorocarbon — Any of a class of inert compounds of carbon, hydrogen, hydrocarbons, chlorine, and fluorine, used in place of chlorofluorocarbons as being somewhat less destructive to the ozone layer.
  • industrial psychologist — a person who studies human behaviour and cognitive processes in relation to the working environment
  • inland marine insurance — insurance chiefly covering risks to goods and means of transportation involved in the transporting of goods overland or by inland waterways.
  • islamic fundamentalists — Muslims who believe in, advocate or support a conservative adherence to literal or traditional interpretations of the Qu'ran and the Sunnah
  • juan rodriguez cabrillo — Juan Rodríguez [rod-ree-ges] /rɒdˈri gɛs/ (Show IPA), (Joao Rodrigues Cabrilho) 1499?–1543, Spanish explorer, born in Portugal: discovered California.
  • juvenile-onset diabetes — diabetes (def 3).
  • keep sth under your hat — If you tell someone to keep a piece of information under their hat, you are asking them not to tell anyone else about it.
  • l'apres-midi d'un faune — L'Après-midi d'un Faune.
  • lead up the garden path — a plot of ground, usually near a house, where flowers, shrubs, vegetables, fruits, or herbs are cultivated.
  • leave no stone unturned — the hard substance, formed of mineral matter, of which rocks consist.
  • lieutenant junior grade — a commissioned officer ranking above an ensign and below a lieutenant.
  • light and shade surface — (in architectural shades and shadows) a surface in a plane tangent to the parallel rays from the theoretical light source, treated as a shade surface.
  • liquefied petroleum gas — a mixture of various petroleum gases, esp propane and butane, stored as a liquid under pressure and used as an engine fuel
  • locally euclidean space — a topological space in which each point has a neighborhood that is homeomorphic to an open set in a Euclidean space of specified dimension.
  • lossy audio compression — (audio, compression)   Any audio compression algorithm which does not retain every bit of data but only reproduces a signal that sounds more or less like the original. Examples are MP1, MP2, MP3, AAC.
  • made out of whole cloth — completely fictitious or false; made up
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