17-letter words containing c, a, o
- cut a poor figure — to appear or behave badly
- cutaneous quittor — a purulent infection of horses and other hoofed animals, characterized by an acute inflammation of soft tissue above the hoof and resulting in suppuration and sloughing of the skin and usually lameness.
- cyanogen chloride — a colorless, volatile, poisonous liquid, CNCl, used chiefly in the synthesis of compounds containing the cyano group.
- cyclooctatetraene — a colorless, flammable liquid cyclic hydrocarbon, C 8 H 8 , used in organic research.
- cypriot syllabary — a syllabic script in use on Cyprus in the first millennium b.c., used for the writing of Greek and of an unknown language.
- cytoarchitectonic — Of or pertaining to cytoarchitectonics (cytoarchitecture).
- cytomegaloviruses — Plural form of cytomegalovirus.
- cytotrophoblastic — Relating to, or containing, cytotrophoblasts.
- d&o insurance — D&O insurance is a personal liability insurance that provides cover to the directors and senior executives of a company.
- damp-proof course — A damp-proof course is the same as a damp course.
- daphnis and chloe — two lovers in pastoral literature, esp in a prose idyll attributed to the Greek writer Longus
- dark-complexioned — (of a person) having a dark complexion
- david copperfield — a novel (1850) by Charles Dickens.
- de facto standard — A widespread consensus on a particular product or protocol which has not been ratified by any official standards body, such as ISO, but which nevertheless has a large market share. The archetypal example of a de facto standard is the IBM PC which, despite is many glaring technical deficiencies, has gained such a large share of the personal computer market that it is now popular simply because it is popular and therefore enjoys fierce competition in pricing and software development.
- de-baathification — the process of removing the members and influence of the Ba'ath Party from public office in Iraq following the US-led invasion of 2003
- de-specialization — the act of specializing, or pursuing a particular line of study or work: Medical students with high student loans often feel driven into specialization.
- decellularization — (biology, medicine) The loss of cells from tissue.
- decontextualizing — to remove (a linguistic element, an action, etc.) from a context: decontextualized works of art displayed in museums.
- decriminalisation — (chiefly, British) Alternative form of decriminalization.
- decriminalization — to eliminate criminal penalties for or remove legal restrictions against: to decriminalize marijuana.
- dehistoricization — The process or result of dehistoricizing.
- dehydrochlorinase — an enzyme that catalyzes the removal of hydrogen and chlorine atoms or ions from chlorinated hydrocarbons.
- dehydrochlorinate — to remove hydrogen chloride or chlorine and hydrogen from (a substance).
- delay instruction — delayed control-transfer
- denatured alcohol — ethanol rendered unfit for human consumption by the addition of a noxious substance, as in methylated spirits
- dendroarchaeology — (archaeology) the science that uses dendrochronology to date wooden material from archaeological sites.
- dendroclimatology — The science that uses dendrochronology to reconstruct historical climate conditions.
- denial of service — a deliberate interruption in access to a computer system or network, esp by using multiple computers to generate an unmanageable volume of traffic (distributed denial of service)
- denial-of-service — pertaining to or being an incident in which a computer or computer network is disabled, disrupting access or service: a website hit by a denial-of-service attack; unintentional denial-of-service problems.
- deoxyribonuclease — DNase.
- dephlogisticating — Present participle of dephlogisticate.
- despotic monarchy — absolute monarchy.
- dessert chocolate — cooking chocolate
- desynchronisation — (British spelling) Alternative form of desynchronization.
- desynchronization — to cause to indicate the same time, as one timepiece with another: Synchronize your watches.
- deucalion's flood — a flood sent by Zeus that wiped out the entire population of the earth, except for Deucalion and his wife Pyrrha
- devil's food cake — a rich chocolate cake
- diacetone alcohol — a colorless, flammable liquid with a pleasant odor, C 6 H 12 O 2 : used as a solvent for lacquers, dyes, cellulose nitrate, and resins.
- dialect geography — linguistic geography
- dialectologically — In terms of dialectology.
- diatonic semitone — the pitch difference between certain adjacent degrees of the diatonic scale
- diaz del castillo — Bernal [ber-nahl] /bɛrˈnɑl/ (Show IPA), 1492–1581, Spanish soldier-historian of the conquest of Mexico.
- dicarboxylic acid — any carboxylic acid that contains two carboxyl groups per molecule
- dictionary attack — an attempt to hack into a computer or network by submitting every word in a dictionary as a possible password
- dictionary-making — the work or activity of compiling dictionaries
- digital recording — a method of sound recording in which an input audio waveform is sampled at regular intervals, usually between 40,000 and 50,000 times per second, and each sample is assigned a numerical value, usually expressed in binary notation.
- diocletian window — a window in the form of a round-headed archway with a narrower compartment on either side, the side compartments usually being capped with entablatures on which the arch of the central compartment rests.
- dipterocarpaceous — of, relating to, or belonging to the Dipterocarpaceae, a family of trees chiefly native to tropical SE Asia, having two-winged fruits. Many species yield useful timber and resins
- disaster recovery — (business) (DR) Planning and implementation of procedures and facilities for use when essential systems are not available for a period long enough to have a significant impact on the business, e.g. when the head office is blown up. Disasters include natural: fire, flood, lightning, hurricane; hardware: power failure, component failure, head crash; software failure: bugs, resources; vandalism: arson, bombing, cracking, theft; data corruption or loss: human error, media failure; communications: computer network equipment, network storm, telephones; security: passwords compromised, computer virus; legal: change in legislation; personnel: unavailability of essential staff, industrial action. Companies need to plan for disaster: before: risk analysis, preventive measures, training; during: how should staff and systems respond; after: recovery measures, post mortem analysis. Hardware can usually be replaced and is usually insured. Software and data needs to be backed up off site. Alternative communication systems should be arranged in case of network failure or inaccessible premises, e.g. emergency telephone number, home working, alternative data center.
- discomgoogolation — a feeling of anxiety felt by someone who is unable to access the internet