16-letter words containing a, u, d, i, t, o
- 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.
- diplomatic pouch — a sealed mailbag containing diplomatic correspondence that is sent free of inspection between a foreign office and its diplomatic or consular post abroad or from one such post to another.
- discombobulating — Present participle of discombobulate.
- discombobulation — to confuse or disconcert; upset; frustrate: The speaker was completely discombobulated by the hecklers.
- discountenancing — Present participle of discountenance.
- disequilibration — to put out of equilibrium; unbalance: A period of high inflation could disequilibrate the monetary system.
- disputatiousness — The state or quality of being disputatious or argumentative; contentiousness.
- 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
- distributionally — In a distributional manner.
- divisional court — a high court in which at least two judges sit
- document imaging — the process of converting paper documents into an electronic or digital format
- documentary film — factual, informative film
- double solitaire — a game of solitaire for two persons, each player usually having a pack and layout but pooling foundations with the opponent.
- double-breasting — the practice of employing nonunion workers, especially in a separate division, to supplement the work of higher-paid union workers.
- 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.
- dual nationality — dual citizenship (def 1).
- dual personality — a disorder in which an individual possesses two dissociated personalities.
- dual-nationality — Also called dual nationality. the status of a person who is a legal citizen of two or more countries.
- dysfunctionality — (uncountable) The condition of being dysfunctional.
- educational park — a group of elementary and high schools, usually clustered in a parklike setting and having certain facilities shared by all grades, that often accommodates students from a large area.
- electrohydraulic — Relating to electrohydraulics.
- exhaust manifold — An exhaust manifold is a heat-resistant tube that connects an engine to an exhaust pipe.
- exhumation order — a legal instruction to exhume a body
- external auditor — sb brought in to check financial records
- fade-in fade-out — an optical effect in which a shot appears gradually out of darkness and then gradually disappears
- fashion industry — the industry that deals with the world of fashion
- find favour with — to be approved of by someone
- fool around with — have casual sex
- for the duration — If you say that something will happen for the duration, you mean that it will happen for as long as a particular situation continues.
- foundation stone — any of the stones composing the foundation of a building.
- four-masted brig — jackass bark (def 2).
- funeral director — a person, usually a licensed embalmer, who supervises or conducts the preparation of the dead for burial and directs or arranges funerals.
- gaudí (i cornet) — An‧to‧nio (ɑnˈtɔnjɔ ) ; änt^ōˈny^ō) 1852-1926; Sp. architect
- grand inquisitor — (often initial capital letters) the presiding officer of a court of inquisition.
- gulf of thailand — an arm of the South China Sea between the Malay Peninsula and Indochina
- hang around with — to associate or socialize with
- hard put (to it) — having considerable difficulty or trouble
- health education — education that aims to give people the information they need to live healthily
- higher education — education beyond high school, specifically that provided by colleges and graduate schools, and professional schools.
- hudsonian godwit — any of several large, widely distributed shorebirds of the genus Limosa, as the New World L. haemastica (Hudsonian godwit) having a long bill that curves upward slightly.
- hydration number — the number of molecules of water with which an ion can combine in an aqueous solution of given concentration.
- hyponitrous acid — an unstable, crystalline acid, H 2 N 2 O 2 .
- immunodepressant — preventing or diminishing the immune response
- immunomodulation — Any of several adjustments in the level of an immune response.
- immunomodulatory — (medical) Having the ability to alter or regulate immune functions.
- in a brown study — in a reverie or daydream
- inauguration day — the day on which the president of the United States is inaugurated, being January 20 of every year following a year whose number is divisible by four. Prior to the Twentieth Amendment to the Constitution (ratified February 6, 1933), it was March 4.
- inboard-outboard — Also, outdrive, stern-drive. (of a motorboat) having an inboard engine connected to a maneuverable outboard drive-shaft unit.
- indo-europeanist — a linguist specializing in the study, especially the comparative study, of the Indo-European languages.