20-letter words containing a, l, i, g
- central india agency — a former group of 89 states in India, under the supervision of a British political agent until 1947: most important were Indore, Bhopal, and Rewa
- centrifugal spinning — the spinning of rayon filaments in a centrifugal box.
- chemical engineering — Chemical engineering is the designing and constructing of machines that are needed for industrial chemical processes.
- chemical fingerprint — a distinctive characteristic or pattern indicating the presence of a certain molecule, used to identify a chemical.
- child support agency — the British government agency concerned with the welfare of children
- child-abuse register — (in Britain) a list of children deemed to be at risk of abuse or injury from their parents or guardians, compiled and held by a local authority, area health authority, or NSPCC Special Unit
- chip scale packaging — (hardware) (CSP) A type of surface mount integrated circuit packaging that provides pre-speed-sorted, pre-tested and pre-packaged die without requiring special testing. An example is Motorola's Micro SMT packaging. See also: chip-on-board, flip chip, multichip module, known good die, ball grid array.
- chrono-logical order — the arrangement of things following one after another in time: Put these documents in chronological order.
- clay-pigeon shooting — the activity of shooting clay pigeons
- cleansing department — the department of a local authority that collects refuse
- coalition government — a government containing members of two or more political parties
- collective agreement — a negotiated agreement, which is not enforceable at law, between an employer and employees' representatives, covering rates of pay or terms and conditions of employment, or both
- college of cardinals — the collective body of cardinals having the function of electing and advising the pope
- college of education — a professional training college for teachers
- collegiate institute — (in certain provinces) a large secondary school with an academic, rather than vocational, emphasis
- comparative religion — a field of study seeking to derive general principles from a comparison and classification of the growth and influence of various religions.
- compensating balance — Also, compensated balance, compensation balance. a balance wheel in a timepiece, designed to compensate for variations in tension in the hair spring caused by changes in temperature.
- congressional record — (in the US) the government journal that publishes all proceedings of Congress
- continental congress — the assembly of delegates from the North American rebel colonies held during and after the War of American Independence. It issued the Declaration of Independence (1776) and framed the Articles of Confederation (1777)
- contingency planning — planning for future events that seem less likely than others
- contingent liability — a possible liability that is dependent on the outcome of a future event
- corresponding angles — a pair of nonadjacent angles, one interior and one exterior, on the same side of a transversal: these paired angles are equal if the lines cut by the transversal are parallel
- council-manager plan — (in the US) a system of local government with an elected legislative council and an appointed administrative manager
- criminal proceedings — action taken in a court to bring a criminal prosecution against someone
- cylinder head gasket — (in an automobile engine) a gasket placed between the cylinder and the cylinder heads to avoid leaks of coolant and compression
- daylight saving time — Daylight Saving Time is a period of time in the summer when the clocks are set one hour forward, so that people can have extra light in the evening.
- daylight-saving time — the civil time observed when daylight saving is adopted in a country or community.
- declarative language — (language) Any relational language or functional language. These kinds of programming language describe relationships between variables in terms of functions or inference rules, and the language executor (interpreter or compiler) applies some fixed algorithm to these relations to produce a result. Declarative languages contrast with imperative languages which specify explicit manipulation of the computer's internal state; or procedural languages which specify an explicit sequence of steps to follow. The most common examples of declarative languages are logic programming languages such as Prolog and functional languages like Haskell. See also production system.
- decompartmentalizing — Present participle of decompartmentalize.
- deinstitutionalizing — Present participle of deinstitutionalize.
- dementia pugilistica — chronic traumatic encephalopathy.
- deontological ethics — the branch of ethics dealing with right action and the nature of duty, without regard to the goodness or value of motives or the desirability of the ends of any act.
- determinate cleavage — cell division in a fertilized or unfertilized egg resulting in daughter cells that are no longer able to produce a complete embryo by themselves
- developing-out paper — a sensitized printing paper requiring development in order to bring out the image. Abbreviation: D.O.P.
- development planning — the planning of the development of an area of land
- dialectical theology — a form of neoorthodox theology emphasizing the infinite tensions, paradoxes, and basic ambiguities inherent in Christian existence, and holding, against rationalism, that God is unknowable to humans except through divine grace and revelation.
- dictionary catalogue — a catalogue of the authors, titles, and subjects of books in one alphabetical sequence
- differential housing — the casing that houses the differential of a motor vehicle
- differential pricing — a situation in which different prices are charged for the same product or service
- digital data service — (communications) (DDS) The class of service offered by telecommunications companies for transmitting digital data as opposed to voice.
- digital lempel ziv 1 — (algorithm) (DLZ1) A Lempel-Ziv compression algorithm which maps variable length input strings to variable length output symbols. During compression, the algorithm builds a dictionary of strings which is accessed by means of a hash table. Compression occurs when input data matches a string in the table and is replaced with the output symbol. DLZ1 is used on Digital Linear Tape.
- digital media player — Digital Technology. a portable electronic device or a software program that plays and stores digital audio or video files in various formats.
- digital service unit — data service unit
- directional drilling — a method of drilling for oil in which the well is not drilled vertically, as when a number of wells are to be drilled from a single platform to reach different areas of an oil field
- 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
- displacement tonnage — the number of long tons of water displaced by a vessel, light or load displacement being specified.
- domestic heating oil — a liquid petroleum product used to fuel residential building furnaces or boilers
- dual in-line package — (hardware) (DIL, DIP) The most common type of package for small and medium scale integrated circuits, with up to about 48 pins. The pins hang vertically from the two long edges of the rectangular package, spaced at intervals of 0.1 inch. The pins fit through holes in the circuit board to which they are soldered or into a socket.
- dynamic data linking — Dynamic Data Exchange
- early modern english — the English language represented in printed documents of the period starting with Caxton (1476) and ending with Dryden (1700).