0%

16-letter words containing a, d, y

  • black-eyed susan — any of several North American plants of the genus Rudbeckia, esp R. hirta, having flower heads of orange-yellow rays and brown-black centres: family Asteraceae (composites)
  • black-letter day — an unlucky or tragic day.
  • board of inquiry — a group set up to inquire into accidents, etc
  • boundary dispute — dispute between neighbours about the boundary between their properties
  • brandy alexander — an Alexander cocktail made with brandy
  • bright and early — very early in the morning
  • brown-eyed susan — a composite plant, Rudbeckia triloba, of the southeastern U.S., having a single flower with yellow rays darkening to an orange orbrown at the base and a brownish-black disk.
  • busman's holiday — If you have a holiday, but spend it doing something similar to your usual work, you can refer to it as a busman's holiday.
  • butterfly damper — a damper, as in a flue, that rotates about a central axis across its face.
  • canada mayflower — a small wildflower (Maianthemum canadense) of the lily family, with white flowers and red, beadlike berries, found in the N U.S. and in Canada; bead-ruby
  • canyon de chelly — a canyon in NE Arizona, in the Navajo reservation: site contains prehistoric cliff dwellings.
  • capital employed — the money used by a business for buying land, buildings, equipment etc
  • carboxypeptidase — any of several digestive enzymes that catalyze the removal of an amino acid from the end of a peptide chain having a free carbonyl group.
  • cartridge player — an audio or video system that reads cartridges of magnetic tape
  • cash on delivery — If you pay for goods cash on delivery, you pay for them in cash when they are delivered. The abbreviation C.O.D. is also used.
  • cathode ray tube — (hardware)   (CRT) An electrical device for displaying images by exciting phosphor dots with a scanned electron beam. CRTs are found in computer VDUs and monitors, televisions and oscilloscopes. The first commercially practical CRT was perfected on 29 January 1901 by Allen B DuMont. A large glass envelope containing a negative electrode (the cathode) emits electrons (formerly called "cathode rays") when heated, as in a vacuum tube. The electrons are accelerated across a large voltage gradient toward the flat surface of the tube (the screen) which is covered with phosphor. When an electron strikes the phosphor, light is emitted. The electron beam is deflected by electromagnetic coils around the outside of the tube so that it scans across the screen, usually in horizontal stripes. This scan pattern is known as a raster. By controlling the current in the beam, the brightness at any particular point (roughly a "pixel") can be varied. Different phosphors have different "persistence" - the length of time for which they glow after being struck by electrons. If the scanning is done fast enough, the eye sees a steady image, due to both the persistence of the phospor and of the eye itself. CRTs also differ in their dot pitch, which determines their spatial resolution, and in whether they use interlace or not.
  • cathode-ray tube — A cathode-ray tube is a device in televisions and computer terminals which sends an image onto the screen.
  • central cylinder — stele (def 4).
  • central tendency — the tendency of the values of a random variable to cluster around the mean, median, and mode
  • centrally heated — A centrally heated building or room has central heating.
  • character comedy — comedy, or a comedy, in which the main source of humour is in the character of the people represented in it
  • chiclet keyboard — (hardware, abuse)   A keyboard with a small, flat rectangular or lozenge-shaped rubber or plastic keys that look like pieces of Chiclets chewing gum. Used especially to describe the original IBM PCjr keyboard. Vendors unanimously liked these because they were cheap, and a lot of early portable and laptop computers were launched with them. Customers rejected the idea with almost equal unanimity, and chiclets are not often seen on anything larger than a digital watch any more.
  • child psychiatry — the branch of psychiatry specializing in the treatment of children.
  • chondrodysplasia — (medicine) A genetic disorder characterized by short-limbed dwarfism.
  • churidar pyjamas — long tight-fitting trousers, worn by Indian men and women
  • city of aberdeen — a council area in NE Scotland, established in 1996. Pop: 206 600 (2003 est). Area: 186 sq km (72 sq miles)
  • cladogenetically — By means of cladogenesis.
  • close by/at hand — Something that is close by or close at hand is near to you.
  • coleridge-taylor — Samuel. 1875–1912, British composer, best known for his trilogy of oratorios Song of Hiawatha (1898–1900)
  • collared peccary — a piglike artiodactyl mammal, Tayassu tajacu, of forests of southern North America, Central and South America: family Tayassuidae
  • commodity dollar — the unit of a proposed system of currency, that would have a fluctuating gold value determined at regular intervals on the basis of an official index of the prices of key commodities
  • commonwealth day — the anniversary of Queen Victoria's birth, May 24, celebrated (now on the second Monday in March) as a holiday in many parts of the Commonwealth
  • communion sunday — any Sunday on which communion is administered.
  • community leader — a leading figure in a community
  • concatenated key — compound key
  • cottage industry — A cottage industry is a small business that is run from someone's home, especially one that involves a craft such as knitting or pottery.
  • couvade syndrome — a psychosomatic condition in which the spouse or partner of a pregnant woman experiences symptoms of childbirth or pregnancy
  • crash test dummy — a dummy used in crash tests
  • critical density — the density of matter that would be required to halt the expansion of the universe
  • croydon facelift — the tightening effect on the skin of a woman's face caused by securing the hair at the back of the head in a tight ponytail
  • crystal detector — a demodulator, used esp in microwave circuits and in early radio receivers, consisting of a thin metal wire in point contact with a semiconductor crystal
  • currency trading — the business of trading in different currencies in order to profit from exchange rate differentials
  • cut and blow-dry — a hairdressing procedure in which the customer's hair is cut and blow-dried
  • cyanogen bromide — a colorless, slightly water-soluble, poisonous, volatile, crystalline solid, BrCN, used chiefly as a fumigant and a pesticide.
  • cyclophosphamide — an alkylating agent used in the treatment of leukaemia and lymphomas
  • d-glyceraldehyde — an isomer of glyceraldehyde in which the OH group is on the right side of the asymmetric carbon atom.
  • dacryocystectomy — The surgical removal of a part of the lacrimal sac.
  • dafydd ap gwilym — ?1320–?1380, Welsh poet
  • dakota territory — a territory in the N central U.S., from 1861 to 1868 comprising present-day North Dakota and South Dakota, and parts of Montana and Wyoming.
  • darwinian theory — Darwin's theory of evolution, which holds that all species of plants and animals developed from earlier forms by hereditary transmission of slight variations in successive generations, and that natural selection determines which forms will survive
Was this page helpful?
Yes No
Thank you for your feedback! Tell your friends about this page
Tell us why?