16-letter words containing c, e, m
- 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.
- decision problem — (theory) A problem with a yes/no answer. Determining whether some potential solution to a question is actually a solution or not. E.g. "Is 43669" a prime number?". This is in contrast to a "search problem" which must find a solution from scratch, e.g. "What is the millionth prime number?". See decidability.
- defective number — a positive number that is greater than the sum of all positive integers that are submultiples of it, as 10, which is greater than the sum of 1, 2, and 5.
- dehumidification — Dehumidification is the removal of vapor from a gas-vapor mixture.
- dementia praecox — schizophrenia
- democratic party — (in the US) the older and more liberal of the two major political parties, so named since 1840
- demoiselle crane — a gray crane, Anthropoides virgo, of northern Africa, Europe, and Asia, having long, white plumes behind each eye.
- dermatologically — In a dermatological way.
- devonshire cream — clotted cream.
- diacetylmorphine — heroin.
- dialysis machine — device: kidney treatment
- 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.
- dictionary-maker — a person who compiles a dictionary
- digital computer — a computer that processes information in digital form.
- dimethylcarbinol — isopropyl alcohol.
- direct democracy — to manage or guide by advice, helpful information, instruction, etc.: He directed the company through a difficult time.
- direct marketing — marketing direct to the consumer, as by direct mail or coupon advertising.
- direct-mail shot — the posting of unsolicited sales literature to potential customers' homes or business addresses
- direction number — the component of a vector along a given line; any number proportional to the direction cosines of a given line.
- discovery method — a largely unstructured, situational method or philosophy of teaching whereby students are permitted to find solutions to problems on their own or at their own pace, often jointly in group activities, either independent of or under the guidance of a teacher.
- disfranchisement — to deprive (a person) of a right of citizenship, as of the right to vote.
- 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.
- 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
- diverticulectomy — (surgery) The surgical removal of a diverticulum.
- document imaging — the process of converting paper documents into an electronic or digital format
- documentary film — factual, informative film
- dolichocephalism — (medicine) The quality or condition of being dolichocephalic.
- domain selection — (systems analysis) The prioritisation and selection of one or more domains for which specific software reuse engineering projects are to be initiated.
- dome of the rock — a shrine in Jerusalem at the site from which Muhammad ascended through the seven heavens to the throne of God: built on the site of the Jewish Temple.
- 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 science — home economics.
- domestic servant — person employed to do household chores
- domestic service — the work of household servants
- 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.
- dramatic society — an amateur dramatics club
- dredging machine — dredge1 (def 1).
- drumhead cabbage — acommon type of cabbage with tightly packed leaves and a rounded form with a slightly flattened top
- drumhead service — a religious service attended by members of a military unit while in the field
- duchess of malfi — a tragedy (1614?) by John Webster.
- dynamic language — (language) (Dylan) A simple object-oriented Lisp dialect, most closely resembling CLOS and Scheme, developed by Advanced Technology Group East at Apple Computer. See also Marlais.
- dynamic response — The dynamic response of a machine, structure, or process is how it reacts over time to something that is done to it.
- e-carrier system — (communications) A series of digital transmission formats promulgated by the ITU and used outside of North America and Japan. The basic unit of the E-carrier system is the DS0, which has a transmission rate of 64 Kbps, and is commonly used for one voice circuit. The E1 format consists of 32 DS0 channels, for a total capacity of 2.048 Mbps. E2, E3, E4, and E5 circuits carry multiple E1 channels multiplexed, resulting in transmission rates of up to 565.148 Mbps. The E-carrier system is similar to, and compatible with, the T-carrier system used in North America, but has higher capacity since it uses out-of-band signaling in contrast to the in-band signaling or bit-robbing used in the T-system.
- easter communion — the act of receiving communion in church on Easter Day - considered special because of the primacy of Easter among Christian festivals and because many people regard taking Easter communion as a basic token of membership of their church
- economic embargo — a legal stoppage of commerce, usually taken by one nation or group of nations to harm the economy of another nation or group, often to force a political change
- economic geology — the branch of geology dealing with the location and exploitation of industrial materials obtained from the earth.
- economic migrant — person: seeks work abroad
- economy of scale — a fall in average costs resulting from an increase in the scale of production
- el camino bignum — (humour) /el' k*-mee'noh big'nuhm/ The road mundanely called El Camino Real, a road through the San Francisco peninsula that originally extended all the way down to Mexico City and many portions of which are still intact. Navigation on the San Francisco peninsula is usually done relative to El Camino Real, which defines logical north and south even though it isn't really north-south many places. El Camino Real runs right past Stanford University. The Spanish word "real" (which has two syllables: /ray-al'/) means "royal"; El Camino Real is "the royal road". In the Fortran language, a "real" quantity is a number typically precise to seven significant digits, and a "double precision" quantity is a larger floating-point number, precise to perhaps fourteen significant digits (other languages have similar "real" types). When a hacker from MIT visited Stanford in 1976, he remarked what a long road El Camino Real was. Making a pun on "real", he started calling it "El Camino Double Precision" - but when the hacker was told that the road was hundreds of miles long, he renamed it "El Camino Bignum", and that name has stuck. (See bignum).