16-letter words containing a, n, c, o, l
- coroutine pascal — ["Control Separation in Programming languages", Lemon et al, ACM Ann Conf 1977].
- correcting plate — a thin lens used to correct incoming light rays in special forms of reflecting telescopes.
- council of state — a council that deliberates on high-level policies of a government.
- counselor-at-law — a lawyer, esp one who conducts cases in court; attorney
- counterbalancing — Present participle of counterbalance.
- counterchallenge — A challenge made in response to another challenge.
- counterfactually — a conditional statement the first clause of which expresses something contrary to fact, as “If I had known.”.
- counterguerrilla — (of operations, conflicts, etc) conducted against guerrillas
- counterproposals — Plural form of counterproposal.
- crime passionnel — a crime committed from passion, esp sexual passion
- criminal offence — an action which is punishable under the law
- critical section — A non-re-entrant piece of code that can only be executed by one process at a time. It will usually terminate in bounded time and a process will only have to wait a bounded time to enter it. Some synchronisation mechanism is required at the entry and exit of the critical section to ensure exclusive use.
- cross-validation — a process by which a method that works for one sample of a population is checked for validity by applying the method to another sample from the same population.
- 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
- cuban royal palm — a feather palm, Roystonea regia, of tropical America, having a trunk that is swollen in the middle, drooping leaves from 10 to 15 feet (3 to 5 meters) long, and small, round fruit.
- cut and blow-dry — a hairdressing procedure in which the customer's hair is cut and blow-dried
- cyclohexamantane — (chemistry) A certain diamondoid, C26H30.
- de-anglicization — (in Ireland) the elimination of English influence, language, customs, etc
- dealcoholization — to remove some or all of the alcohol from (a drink).
- decapitalization — to deprive of capital; discourage capital formation; withdraw capital from: The government decapitalized industry with harsh tax policies.
- decentralisation — Alternative spelling of decentralization.
- decentralization — to distribute the administrative powers or functions of (a central authority) over a less concentrated area: to decentralize the national government.
- decimal fraction — a fraction whose denominator is some power of 10, usually indicated by a dot (decimal point or point) written before the numerator: as 0.4 = 4/10; 0.126 = 126/1000.
- declare war (on) — to make a formal declaration of being at war (with)
- declassification — to remove the classification from (information, a document, etc.) that restricts access in terms of secrecy, confidentiality, etc. Compare classification (def 5).
- decontextualized — removed from the usual context
- delayed reaction — response after an interval
- delta connection — a connection used in a three-phase electrical system in which three elements in series form a triangle, the supply being input and output at the three junctions
- delta conversion — delta reduction
- demoiselle crane — a gray crane, Anthropoides virgo, of northern Africa, Europe, and Asia, having long, white plumes behind each eye.
- denuclearization — The act or process of denuclearizing.
- depoliticization — The act or process of depoliticizing.
- deradicalization — the practice of encouraging those with extreme and violent religious or political ideologies to adopt more moderate views
- deuterocanonical — of or constituting a second or subsequent canon; specif., designating certain Biblical books accepted as canonical in the Roman Catholic Church, but held by Protestants to be apocryphal
- diacetylmorphine — heroin.
- diagonal process — a form of argument in which a new member of a set is constructed from a list of its known members by making the nth term of the new member differ from the nth term of the nth member. The new member is thus different from every member of the list
- dictionary flame — [Usenet] An attempt to sidetrack a debate away from issues by insisting on meanings for key terms that presuppose a desired conclusion or smuggle in an implicit premise. A common tactic of people who prefer argument over definitions to disputes about reality. Compare spelling flame.
- diethyl carbinol — a colorless, liquid isomer of amyl alcohol, (CH3CH2)2CHOH, used in drugs and as a solvent
- dimethylcarbinol — isopropyl alcohol.
- director general — the executive head of an organization or of a major subdivision, as a branch or agency, of government.
- director-general — the executive head of an organization or of a major subdivision, as a branch or agency, of government.
- disclosing agent — a vegetable dye, administered as a liquid or in tablet form (disclosing tablet), that stains plaque, making it readily apparent on the teeth
- discombobulating — Present participle of discombobulate.
- discombobulation — to confuse or disconcert; upset; frustrate: The speaker was completely discombobulated by the hecklers.
- disconsolateness — (uncountable) The state of being disconsolate; gloom.
- discriminatorily — characterized by or showing prejudicial treatment, especially as an indication of bias related to age, color, national origin, religion, sex, etc.: discriminatory practices in housing; a discriminatory tax.
- displaced person — a person driven or expelled from his or her homeland by war, famine, tyranny, etc. Abbreviation: DP, D.P.
- displacement ton — a unit for measuring the displacement of a vessel, equal to a long ton of 2240 pounds (1016 kg) or 35 cu. ft. (1 cu. m) of seawater.
- disqualification — an act or instance of disqualifying.
- distance modulus — a measure of the distance, r, of a celestial object too far away to show measurable parallax. It is given by m–M = 5 log(r/10), where m is its apparent magnitude (corrected for interstellar absorption) and M is its absolute magnitude