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18-letter words containing c, o, n, d, e, s

  • considered harmful — (programming, humour)   A type of phrase based on the title of Edsger W. Dijkstra's famous note in the March 1968 Communications of the ACM, "Goto Statement Considered Harmful", which fired the first salvo in the structured programming wars. Amusingly, the ACM considered the resulting acrimony sufficiently harmful that it will (by policy) no longer print articles taking so assertive a position against a coding practice. In the ensuing decades, a large number of both serious papers and parodies bore titles of the form "X considered Y". The structured-programming wars eventually blew over with the realisation that both sides were wrong, but use of such titles has remained as a persistent minor in-joke.
  • consolato del mare — a code of maritime law compiled in the Middle Ages: it drew upon ancient law and has influenced modern law.
  • constitutionalized — Simple past tense and past participle of constitutionalize.
  • contact dermatitis — dermatitis caused by direct contact with an irritating substance, as an allergen or chemical
  • continental shield — any of the large, low-lying areas in the Earth's crust that are composed of Precambrian crystalline rocks
  • controlled-release — A controlled-release drug or preparation is released into the body in specified amounts over a specified period of time.
  • cordless telephone — a portable battery-powered telephone with a short-range radio link to a fixed base unit
  • correspondent bank — A correspondent bank is a bank that provides services such as accepting deposits for another bank.
  • costume department — the department in a theatre or television company that is responsible for actors' costumes
  • cot death syndrome — the unexplained sudden death of an infant during sleep
  • couldn't care less — If you say that you couldn't care less about someone or something, you are emphasizing that you are not interested in them or worried about them. In American English, you can also say that you could care less, with the same meaning.
  • countryside agency — (in England) a government agency that promotes the conservation and enjoyment of the countryside and aims to stimulate employment in rural areas
  • crocodile-infested — full of crocodiles
  • cursor dipped in x — (jargon)   The metaphorical source of the electronic equivalent of a poisoned-pen letter. Derived from English metaphors of the form "pen dipped in X" (where X = e.g. "acid", "bile", "vitriol"). These map over neatly to this hackish usage (the cursor being what moves, leaving letters behind, when one is composing on-line). "Talk about a nastygram! He must've had his cursor dipped in acid when he wrote that one!"
  • cushing's syndrome — a medical condition characterized by obesity, hypertension, excessive hair growth, etc., caused by an overactive adrenal gland or large doses of corticosteroids
  • custodial sentence — a sentence given by a court that involves a term of imprisonment
  • customs and excise — Customs and Excise is a British government department which is responsible for collecting taxes on imported and exported goods. Compare Customs Service.
  • cut-and-waste code — (humour, programming)   Code that someone found online (e.g. in a blog) and copied and pasted into a product. The result is usually a lot of wasted time trying to track down obscure bugs from code that may have made sense in the original context but not in the new one. Also known as blog-driven development.
  • debt consolidation — the process of taking out a new loan (often secured on one's property) in order to pay off a number of existing debts
  • dechristianization — The act of dechristianizing; the systematic removal of Christianity or Christian elements.
  • decision procedure — a procedure, as an algorithm, for determining in a finite number of steps the validity of any of a certain class of propositions.
  • deep-discount bond — a fixed-interest security that pays little or no interest but is issued at a substantial discount to its redemption value, thus largely substituting capital gain for income
  • defense calculator — IBM 701
  • dendrochronologist — One who carries out dendrochronology.
  • derestriction sign — a circular white sign with a black diagonal band signifying the lifting of any other speed restriction
  • diagnostic testing — Diagnostic testing is the testing of a vehicle, or one of its systems or parts, in order to identify why it is not working properly.
  • diaminofluorescein — (organic compound) A fluorescein into which two amino groups have been substituted.
  • directional signal — any of four signal lights on the front left, front right, rear left, and rear right of an automotive vehicle that, when actuated by the driver, flash in pairs on the side toward which a turn is to be made.
  • discourse analysis — the study of the rules or patterns characterizing units of connected speech or writing longer than a sentence.
  • disidentifications — Plural form of disidentification.
  • disorderly conduct — any of various petty misdemeanors, generally including nuisances, breaches of the peace, offensive or immoral conduct in public, etc.
  • dispatch documents — documents sent with a parcel, etc, detailing information such as contents, delivery address, etc
  • distance education — education in which students receive instruction over the Internet, from a video, etc., instead of going to school.
  • distribution curve — the curve or line of a graph in which cumulative frequencies are plotted as ordinates and values of the variate as abscissas.
  • do oneself justice — If you do yourself justice, you do something as well as you are capable of doing it.
  • domestic appliance — a machine used for household tasks, for example, a washing machine, refrigerator, etc.
  • down on one's luck — the force that seems to operate for good or ill in a person's life, as in shaping circumstances, events, or opportunities: With my luck I'll probably get pneumonia.
  • driver's education — high-school driving classes
  • duchenne dystrophy — the most common form of muscular dystrophy, usually affecting only boys
  • dynamically scoped — dynamic scope
  • dysfunctionalities — Plural form of dysfunctionality.
  • east india company — the company chartered by the English government in 1600 to carry on trade in the East Indies: dissolved in 1874.
  • egg and spoon race — a novelty race in which contestants each carry an egg in a spoon to the finish line, the winner being the first to finish without dropping or breaking the egg.
  • egg-and-spoon race — a race in which runners carry an egg balanced in a spoon
  • eigendecomposition — (linear algebra) The factorization of a matrix into a canonical form, whereby the matrix is represented in terms of its eigenvalues and eigenvectors.
  • electrodesiccation — The drying of tissue, and the prevention of bleeding, using a high-frequency electric current.
  • eraser stains code — (humour, programming)   Code that has been refactored many times, leaving swaths of legacy code and design; like paper that has been written on and erased so many times that the pencil marks are no longer the problem - the large greasy stain is.
  • executive decision — a decision made by a person or group that has executive power
  • functional disease — a disease in which there is an abnormal change in the function of an organ, but no structural alteration in the tissues involved (opposed to organic disease).
  • geodetic surveying — the surveying of the earth's surface, making allowance for its curvature and giving an accurate framework for smaller-scale surveys
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