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16-letter words containing a, r, o, d

  • dimethylcarbinol — isopropyl alcohol.
  • dinosaurs mating — (humour)   The activity said to occur when yet another big iron merger or buy-out occurs; reflects a perception by hackers that these signal another stage in the long, slow dying of the mainframe industry. Also described as "elephants mating": lots of noise and action at a high level, with an eventual outcome in the somewhat distant future. In its glory days of the 1960s, it was "IBM and the Seven Dwarves": Burroughs, Control Data, General Electric, Honeywell, NCR, RCA, and Univac. Early on, RCA sold out to Univac and GE also sold out, and it was "IBM and the BUNCH" (an acronym for Burroughs, Univac, NCR, Control Data, and Honeywell) for a while. Honeywell was bought out by Bull. Univac in turn merged with Sperry to form Sperry/Univac, which was later merged (although the employees of Sperry called it a hostile takeover) with Burroughs to form Unisys in 1986 (this was when the phrase "dinosaurs mating" was coined). In 1991 AT&T absorbed NCR, only to spit it out again in 1996. Unisys bought Convergent Technologies in 1988 and later others. More such earth-shaking unions of doomed giants seem inevitable.
  • diphosphorylated — (biochemistry) phosphorylated with two units of phosphoric acid.
  • diplomatic corps — the entire body of diplomats accredited to and resident at a court or capital.
  • direct democracy — to manage or guide by advice, helpful information, instruction, etc.: He directed the company through a difficult time.
  • direct-mail shot — the posting of unsolicited sales literature to potential customers' homes or business addresses
  • director general — the executive head of an organization or of a major subdivision, as a branch or agency, of government.
  • director's chair — a lightweight folding armchair with transversely crossed legs and having a canvas seat and back panel, as traditionally used by motion-picture directors.
  • director-general — the executive head of an organization or of a major subdivision, as a branch or agency, of government.
  • disaccreditation — to take away the accreditation or authorization of: to disaccredit a diplomat.
  • discographically — In terms of discography.
  • 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.
  • discussion board — a website or section of a website that is used for public discussion of a specific topic and on which users can submit or read messages: You should post your questions on a parenting message board and get support from other parents.
  • disequilibration — to put out of equilibrium; unbalance: A period of high inflation could disequilibrate the monetary system.
  • dishonorableness — The property of being dishonorable.
  • disincorporation — to remove from an incorporated state or status.
  • dispersal prison — a prison organized and equipped to accommodate a proportion of the most dangerous and highest security risk prisoners
  • displaced person — a person driven or expelled from his or her homeland by war, famine, tyranny, etc. Abbreviation: DP, D.P.
  • disproportionate — not proportionate; out of proportion, as in size or number.
  • distributionally — In a distributional manner.
  • distrito federal — Federal District. Abbreviation: D.F.
  • diversifications — Plural form of diversification.
  • division algebra — a linear algebra in which each element of the vector space has a multiplicative inverse.
  • divisional court — a high court in which at least two judges sit
  • do like a dinner — to do for, overpower, or outdo
  • do the necessary — to do something that is necessary in a particular situation
  • documentary film — factual, informative film
  • dolce far niente — pleasing inactivity.
  • dollar diplomacy — a government policy of promoting the business interests of its citizens in other countries.
  • domestic partner — either member of an unmarried, cohabiting, and especially homosexual couple that seeks benefits usually available only to spouses.
  • domestic prelate — an honorary distinction conferred by the Holy See upon clergy, entitling them to some of the privileges of a bishop.
  • domestic servant — person employed to do household chores
  • domiciliary care — services, such as meals-on-wheels, health visiting, and home help, provided by a welfare agency for people in their own homes
  • dominical letter — any one of the letters from A to G used in church calendars to mark the Sundays throughout any particular year, serving primarily to aid in determining the date of Easter.
  • dorothy canfield — Dorothy, Fisher, Dorothy Canfield.
  • double monastery — a religious community of both men and women who live in separate establishments under the same superior and who worship in a common church.
  • double solitaire — a game of solitaire for two persons, each player usually having a pack and layout but pooling foundations with the opponent.
  • double-barrelled — A double-barrelled gun has two barrels.
  • double-breasting — the practice of employing nonunion workers, especially in a separate division, to supplement the work of higher-paid union workers.
  • down memory lane — If you say that someone is taking a walk or trip down memory lane, you mean that they are talking, writing, or thinking about something that happened to them a long time ago.
  • drag coefficient — a measure of the drag of an object in a moving fluid, esp air
  • dramatic society — an amateur dramatics club
  • draw the longbow — to exaggerate in telling something
  • dressing station — a post or center that gives first aid to the wounded, located near a combat area.
  • drift transistor — a transistor in which the impurity concentration in the base increases from the collector-base junction to the emitter-base junction, producing a resistivity gradient that greatly increases its high-frequency response
  • driver education — a course of study, as for high-school students, that teaches the techniques of driving a vehicle, along with basic vehicle maintenance, safety precautions, and traffic regulations and laws.
  • drogue parachute — Also called drogue. a small parachute that deploys first in order to pull a larger parachute from its pack.
  • drop (down) dead — If you say that a person or animal dropped dead or dropped down dead, you mean that they died very suddenly and unexpectedly.
  • drop a bombshell — If someone drops a bombshell, they give you a sudden piece of bad or unexpected news.
  • dry distillation — destructive distillation.
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