16-letter words containing c, o, s, a, t
- countersignature — second signature
- counterstatement — a statement made to deny or refute another statement.
- course of action — a way of proceeding
- court of appeals — A Court of Appeals is a court which deals with appeals against legal judgments.
- cowichan sweater — a heavy sweater of grey, unbleached wool with distinctive designs that were originally black-and-white but are now sometimes coloured: knitted originally by Cowichan Indians in British Columbia
- craftspersonship — The body of activities, skills, techniques, knowledge, and expertise pertinent to (a) particular craft(s).
- creation science — teaching and research based upon the belief that the biblical account of the creation of the world is scientific fact
- creative commons — Sometimes, creative commons. a set of various licenses that allow people to share their copyrighted work to be copied, edited, built upon, etc., while retaining the copyright to the original work (often used attributively): We’re happy for other sites to share these photos under Creative Commons; a creative commons license.
- creative tension — a situation where disagreement or discord ultimately gives rise to better ideas or outcomes
- critical section — A non-re-entrant piece of code that can only be executed by one process at a time. It will usually terminate in bounded time and a process will only have to wait a bounded time to enter it. Some synchronisation mechanism is required at the entry and exit of the critical section to ensure exclusive use.
- cross-resistance — immunologic resistance to the pathogenic effects of a microorganism because of previous exposure to another species or type having cross-reactive antigens.
- cross-validation — a process by which a method that works for one sample of a population is checked for validity by applying the method to another sample from the same population.
- crosscontaminate — Alternative spelling of cross-contaminate.
- crossopterygians — Plural form of crossopterygian.
- cryoprecipitates — Plural form of cryoprecipitate.
- cryopreservation — the storage of blood or living tissues at extremely cold temperatures, often -196 degrees Celsius.
- crystal detector — a demodulator, used esp in microwave circuits and in early radio receivers, consisting of a thin metal wire in point contact with a semiconductor crystal
- crystallographer — A person skilled in crystallography.
- crystallographic — of, relating to, or dealing with crystals or crystallography.
- customary tenant — a tenant occupying a property under the customs of the manor, often a low-status tenant with little security of tenure
- cut one's throat — to bring about one's own ruin
- cut to the chase — If someone cuts to the chase, they start talking about or dealing with what is important, instead of less important things.
- cute as a button — very sweet, adorable
- cytotrophoblasts — Plural form of cytotrophoblast.
- dacryocystectomy — The surgical removal of a part of the lacrimal sac.
- data abstraction — (data) Any representation of data in which the implementation details are hidden (abstracted). Abstract data types and objects are the two primary forms of data abstraction.
- data acquisition — data logging
- data compression — the act of compressing.
- davidson current — a winter countercurrent that flows N along the W coast of the U.S.
- debating society — a club, e.g. at a school or university, which regularly holds debates
- deboursification — (jargon) Removal of irrelevant newsgroups from the Newsgroups header of a followup. The term applies particularly to the removal of frivolous groups added by one of the Kooks. See also: sneck.
- decentralisation — Alternative spelling of decentralization.
- declassification — to remove the classification from (information, a document, etc.) that restricts access in terms of secrecy, confidentiality, etc. Compare classification (def 5).
- dehydroascorbate — (organic compound) Any salt or ester of dehydroascorbic acid.
- delta conversion — delta reduction
- dephlogisticated — Simple past tense and past participle of dephlogisticate.
- devil's advocate — If you play devil's advocate in a discussion or debate, you express an opinion which you may not agree with but which is very different to what other people have been saying, in order to make the argument more interesting.
- diamond district — the part of a town where diamond merchants and jewellers have their businesses
- diplomatic corps — the entire body of diplomats accredited to and resident at a court or capital.
- direct-mail shot — the posting of unsolicited sales literature to potential customers' homes or business addresses
- 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.
- disaccreditation — to take away the accreditation or authorization of: to disaccredit a diplomat.
- disclosing agent — a vegetable dye, administered as a liquid or in tablet form (disclosing tablet), that stains plaque, making it readily apparent on the teeth
- discombobulating — Present participle of discombobulate.
- discombobulation — to confuse or disconcert; upset; frustrate: The speaker was completely discombobulated by the hecklers.
- disconsolateness — (uncountable) The state of being disconsolate; gloom.
- discountenancing — Present participle of discountenance.
- 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.
- disincorporation — to remove from an incorporated state or status.
- 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.