21-letter words containing a, i, r, l
- diapason normal pitch — a standard of pitch in which A above middle C is established at 435 vibrations per second.
- differential analyzer — an analog computer designed for solving certain differential equations.
- differential calculus — the branch of mathematics that deals with differentials and derivatives.
- differential equation — an equation involving differentials or derivatives.
- differential geometry — the branch of mathematics that deals with the application of the principles of differential and integral calculus to the study of curves and surfaces.
- differential operator — a function, usually expressed as a polynomial, that indicates linear combinations of the derivatives of the expression on which it operates.
- differential quotient — derivative (def 6).
- differential topology — the branch of topology that studies the properties of differentiable manifolds that remain invariant under diffeomorphisms.
- differential windlass — a pair of hoisting drums of different diameter turning at the same rate, such that a pulley suspended below them on a line wound on the larger drum and unwound from the smaller drum is raised with mechanical advantage.
- differential-quotient — something that has been derived.
- direct inward dialing — (communications) (DID) A service offered by telephone companies which allows the last 3 or 4 digits of a phone number to be transmitted to the destination exchange. For example, a company could have 10 incoming lines, all with the number 234 000. If a caller dials 234 697, the call is sent to 234 000 (the company's exchange), and the digits 697 are transmitted. The company's exchange then routes the call to extension 697. This gives the impression of 1000 direct dial lines, whereas in fact there are only 10. Obviously, only 10 at a time can be used. This system is also used by fax servers. Instead of an exchange at the end of the 234 000 line, a computer running fax server software and fax modem cards uses the last three digits to identify the recipient of the fax. This allows 1000 people to have their own individual fax numbers, even though there is only one 'fax machine'.
- disestablishmentarian — a person who favors the separation of church and state, especially the withdrawal of special rights, status, and support granted an established church by a state; an advocate of disestablishing a state church.
- display advertisement — an advertisement designed to attract attention by using devices such as conspicuous or elegant typefaces, graphics, etc
- distant early warning — a US radar detection system to warn of missile attack
- distributed smalltalk — ["The Design and Implementation of Distributed Smalltalk", J. Bennett, SIGPLAN Notices 22(12):318-330 (Dec 1980)].
- double predestination — the doctrine that God has foreordained both those who will be saved and those who will be damned.
- double spanish burton — a tackle having one standing block and two running blocks, giving a mechanical advantage of five, neglecting friction.
- drop in someone's lap — give someone the responsibility of
- dumfries and galloway — a region in S Scotland. 2460 sq. mi. (6371 sq. km).
- dynamic drive overlay — (storage, software) (DDO) Software to allow a system BIOS that does not support Logical Block Addressing to access drives larger than 528 MB. The alternatives are to update the system BIOS or install an EIDE controller card with a suitable on-board BIOS.
- eastern daylight time — a time zone applicable to many eastern areas of the United States during the summer months, being a daylight-saving variant of Eastern Standard Time
- eccles-jordan circuit — flip-flop
- electric displacement — the electric flux density when an electric field exists in free space into which a dielectric is introduced
- electric polarization — Electric polarization is the type of polarization of electricity that occurs in a dielectric.
- electromagnetic field — a field of force associated with a moving electric charge equivalent to an electric field and a magnetic field at right angles to each other and to the direction of propagation
- electromagnetic pulse — a surge of electromagnetic radiation, esp one resulting from a nuclear explosion, which can disrupt electronic devices and, occasionally, larger structures and equipment
- electromyographically — By means of, or in terms of, electromyography.
- emotional correctness — pressure on an individual to be seen to feel the same emotion as others
- empire state building — New York City skyscraper
- empirical probability — a measure or estimate of the degree of confidence one may have in the occurrence of an event, defined as the proportion observed in a sample
- endoplasmic reticulum — an extensive intracellular membrane system whose functions include synthesis and transport of lipids and, in regions where ribosomes are attached, of proteins
- enhanced oil recovery — any of several techniques that make it possible to recover more oil than can be obtained by natural pressure, such as the injection of fluid or gases into an oilfield to force more oil to the surface
- enharmonic modulation — a change of key achieved by regarding a note in one key as an equivalent note in another. Thus E flat in the key of A flat could be regarded as D sharp in the key of B major
- environmental studies — a university course studying the environment and related issues
- epidermolysis bullosa — type of genetic skin disorder
- equiangular hyperbola — a hyperbola with transverse and conjugate axes equal to each other.
- ethernet private line — (networking) (EPL) A data service defined by the Metro Ethernet Forum, providing a point-to-point Ethernet connection between a pair of dedicated User-Network Interfaces (UNIs), with a high degree of transparency.
- euro-commercial paper — commercial paper issued in a eurocurrency
- extensible vax editor — (text, tool) (EVE) A DEC product implemented using DEC's Text Processing Utility (TPU).
- faculty board meeting — a meeting of the governing body of a faculty
- feline leukemia virus — a retrovirus, mainly affecting cats, that depresses the immune system and leads to opportunistic infections, lymphosarcoma, and other disorders. Abbreviation: FeLV, FLV.
- ferric sodium oxalate — an emerald-green, crystalline, extremely water-soluble salt, used in photography and blueprinting.
- financial underwriter — A financial underwriter is an insurance employee working in financial underwriting.
- first-dollar coverage — insurance that provides payment for the full loss up to the insured amount with no deductibles.
- flat-coated retriever — one of an English breed of large sporting dogs having a flat, dense, shiny black or liver-colored coat, small ears, and long jaws, used for retrieving game from both water and land.
- flotation compartment — in a boat, an enclosed section filled with air or gas to give buoyancy
- fluorophosphoric acid — any of three acids containing fluorine and phosphorus, HPF 6 , HPO 2 F 2 , or H 2 PO 3 F.
- forensic anthropology — the branch of physical anthropology in which anthropological data, criteria, and techniques are used to determine the sex, age, genetic population, or parentage of skeletal or biological materials in questions of civil or criminal law.
- fort lesley j. mcnair — a military reservation in SW Washington, D.C., on the Potomac River, SW of the Capitol.
- forward compatibility — (jargon) The ability to accept input from later versions of itself. Forward compatibility is harder to achieve than backward compatibility, since, in the backward case, the input format is know whereas a forward compatible system needs to cope gracefully with unknown future features. An example of future compatibility is the stipulation that a web browser should ignore HTML tags it does not recognise. See also extensible.