17-letter words containing d, a, l, i, t
- 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.
- digital signature — an encrypted digital code appended to an electronic document to verify that it was created by a known source and has not been altered.
- dimethylformamide — a colourless liquid widely used as a solvent and sometimes as a catalyst. Formula: (CH3)2NCHO
- dimethylhydrazine — a flammable, highly toxic, and colorless liquid, C 2 H 8 N 2 , used as a component in jet and rocket fuels.
- 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.
- diphenylacetylene — tolan.
- diphenylhydantoin — a white, slightly water-soluble powder, C 15 H 11 N 2 O 2 , used in the form of its sodium salt to prevent or arrest convulsions in epilepsy.
- dipped headlights — road vehicle headlights which have been switched from the main to the lower beam
- disability clause — a clause in a life-insurance policy providing for waiver of premium and sometimes payment of monthly income if the policyholder becomes totally and permanently disabled.
- disadvantageously — In a disadvantageous manner.
- disaster planning — disaster recovery
- discomgoogolation — a feeling of anxiety felt by someone who is unable to access the internet
- discreditableness — Quality of being discreditable.
- discrete variable — a variable that may assume only a countable, and usually finite, number of values.
- dispensationalism — the interpreting of history as a series of divine dispensations.
- displacement hull — a hull that displaces a significant volume of water when under way.
- display standards — display standard
- disproportionally — not in proportion; disproportionate.
- disqualifications — Plural form of disqualification.
- disrespectability — Lack of respectability.
- dissipation trail — a clear rift left behind an aircraft flying through a thin cloud layer.
- dissolve in tears — weep
- distance learning — education in which students receive instruction over the Internet, from a video, etc., instead of going to school.
- distillers' grain — a by-product of the distillation process for making whisky, used as an animal foodstuff
- dna amplification — an increase in the frequency of replication of a DNA segment.
- double insulation — Double insulation is insulation that consists of both basic insulation and supplementary insulation.
- double quatrefoil — a charge having the form of a foil with eight leaves, used especially as the cadency mark of a ninth son.
- double refraction — the separation of a ray of light into two unequally refracted, plane-polarized rays of orthogonal polarizations, occurring in crystals in which the velocity of light rays is not the same in all directions.
- double track line — a railway line with double track
- downward mobility — movement from one social level to a higher one (upward mobility) or a lower one (downward mobility) as by changing jobs or marrying.
- drilling platform — a structure, either fixed to the sea bed or mobile, which supports the machinery and equipment (the drilling rig), together with the stores, required for digging an offshore oil well
- drive to the wall — to force into an awkward situation
- drive up the wall — to cause to become crazy or furious
- duality principle — the principle that a mathematical duality exists under certain conditions.
- dull as dishwater — water in which dishes are, or have been, washed.
- dutch elm disease — a disease of elms characterized by wilting, yellowing, and falling of the leaves and caused by a fungus, Ceratostomella ulmi, transmitted by bark beetles.
- dynamically typed — dynamic typing
- east indian lotus — a southern Asian lotus, Nelumbo nucifera, of the water lily family, having fragrant pink or rose flowers.
- eat flaming death — (humour, abuse) A construction popularised among hackers by the infamous CPU Wars comic; supposedly derive from a famously turgid line in a WWII-era anti-Nazi propaganda comic that ran "Eat flaming death, non-Aryan mongrels!" or something of the sort (however, it is also reported that the Firesign Theater's 1975 album "In The Next World, You're On Your Own" included the phrase "Eat flaming death, fascist media pigs"; this may have been an influence). Used in humorously overblown expressions of hostility. "Eat flaming death, EBCDIC users!"
- edward fitzgerald — Edward, 1809–83, English poet: translator of drama and poetry, especially of Omar Khayyám.
- electric retarder — An electric retarder is an electromagnetic transmission brake that is only effective when a vehicle is moving.
- electricity board — a company which supplies electricity
- electrocardiogram — A record or display of a person’s heartbeat produced by electrocardiography.
- equalization fund — a monetary reserve established by a country to provide funds for maintaining the official exchange rates of its currency by equalizing the buying and selling of foreign exchange.
- esprit d'escalier — clever repartee one thinks of too late
- ethinyloestradiol — Alternative form of ethinylestradiol.
- exception handler — Special code which is called when an exception occurs during the execution of a program. If the programmer does not provide a handler for a given exception, a built-in system exception handler will usually be called resulting in abortion of the program run and some kind of error indication being returned to the user. Examples of exception handler mechanisms are Unix's signal calls and Lisp's catch and throw.
- exceptional child — a gifted child
- falling diphthong — a diphthong in which the first of the two apparent vocalic elements is of greater stress or sonority and the second is of lesser stress or sonority, as in (ī), (ou), (oi), etc.
- false bread-fruit — ceriman.