18-letter words containing d, e, n, a, l
- be-all and end-all — the ultimate aim or justification
- bel and the dragon — a book of the Apocrypha that is included as chapter 14 of Daniel in the Douay Bible.
- bells and whistles — additional features or accessories which are nonessential but very attractive
- black nickel oxide — a gray-black, water-insoluble powder, Ni 2 O 3 , which, at 600°C, decomposes to nickel oxide: used chiefly in storage batteries as an oxidizing agent.
- black-necked grebe — a small grebe, Podiceps nigricollis, found in Europe, Asia, Africa, and America
- black-necked stork — a large Australian stork, Xenorhyncus asiaticus, having a white plumage, dark green back and tail, and red legs
- blackback flounder — any of various popular food flatfishes, as Parophrys vetulus of the Pacific (English sole) and Pseudopleuronectes americanus of the Atlantic (winter flounder or blackback flounder)
- blanquette de veau — a ragout or stew of veal in a white sauce
- bloodbrain barrier — a layer of tightly packed cells that make up the walls of brain capillaries and prevent substances in the blood from diffusing freely into the brain: passage across the cell membranes is determined by solubility in the lipid bilayer or recognition by a transport molecule.
- board of elections — a bipartisan board appointed usually by local authorities and charged with control of elections and voting procedure.
- bottle-nosed whale — any of various beaked whales of the family Hyperoodontidae, characterized by a bulbous forehead, especially Hyperoodon ampullatus of the North Atlantic.
- brazilian rosewood — a Brazilian tree, Dalbergia nigra, of the legume family.
- bring-and-buy sale — A bring-and-buy sale is an informal sale to raise money for a charity or other organization. People who come to the sale bring things to be sold and buy things that other people have brought.
- building materials — materials such as bricks, cement, timber, etc
- cape breton island — an island off SE Canada, in NE Nova Scotia, separated from the mainland by the Strait of Canso: its easternmost point is Cape Breton. Pop: 132 298 (2006). Area: 10 280 sq km (3970 sq miles)
- career development — a progression through a series of jobs, each with more responsibility and a higher income than the last
- carolina chickadee — a chickadee, Parus carolinensis, of the southeastern U.S., resembling but smaller than the black-capped chickadee.
- ceiling decoration — a plaster moulding for the centre of a ceiling; other decoration, such as coving
- celestial guidance — the guidance of a spacecraft or missile by reference to the position of one or more celestial bodies
- centralized school — a public school formed from the pupils and teachers of a number of discontinued smaller schools, especially in a rural district.
- centum call second — (unit) (CCS) A unit used (in North America) to quantify the total traffic running in a network. 1 CCS is 100 call-seconds. That means 1 CCS could be 2 calls of 50 seconds duration or 20 calls of 5 seconds duration.
- cerebral dominance — the normal tendency for one half of the brain, usually the left cerebral hemisphere in right-handed people, to exercise more control over certain functions (e.g. handedness and language) than the other
- chambered nautilus — nautilus (def 1).
- chandelier earring — one of a pair of long and ornate earrings that dangle from the earlobes, usually dropping from more than one level.
- character-building — improving certain good or useful traits in a person's character, esp self-reliance, endurance, and courage
- children of israel — the Jews; Hebrews
- children's crusade — a crusade to recover Jerusalem from the Saracens, undertaken in 1212 by thousands of French and German children who perished, were sold into slavery, or were turned back.
- circulating medium — currency serving as a medium of exchange
- citta del vaticano — Vatican City
- classified section — the part of a publication that contains classified advertising
- clay-colored robin — any of several small Old World birds having a red or reddish breast, especially Erithacus rubecula, of Europe.
- cleopatra's needle — either of two Egyptian obelisks, originally set up at Heliopolis about 1500 bc: one was moved to the Thames Embankment, London, in 1878, the other to Central Park, New York, in 1880
- climbing hydrangea — a woody vine, Hydrangea anomala, of eastern Asia, having shiny, egg-shaped leaves and flat-topped white flower clusters, and climbing by aerial rootlets.
- closed corporation — a corporation the stock of which is owned by a small number of persons and is rarely traded on the open market
- collision diameter — the distance between the centers of two colliding molecules when at their closest point of approach.
- commendation medal — a U.S. military decoration awarded for meritorious achievement or service
- condensation trail — contrail.
- conditional access — the encryption of television programme transmissions so that only authorized subscribers with suitable decoding apparatus may have access to them
- 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.
- content data model — (standard, documentation, language) (CDM) An SGML-based specification for interactive maintenance manuals, developed by the Air Force Human Resourceas Laboratory (AFHRL) with assistance from RJO Enterprises, Incorporated. CDM models data hierachically and data are identified by their content structure with SGML mark-up used to identify information classes such as "system information", "functions", "tasks" and "steps".
- continental divide — the watershed of a continent, esp (often caps.) the principal watershed of North America, formed by the Rocky Mountains
- 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.
- cooling degree-day — a degree-day above the standard temperature of 75°F (24°C), used in estimating the energy requirements for air conditioning and refrigeration.
- cordillera central — a mountain range in Colombia: part of the Andes. Highest peak, Huila, 18,700 feet (5700 meters).
- 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.
- credibility rating — a supposed measure of how far a person can be believed or trusted
- crude oil fraction — A crude oil fraction is a component of crude oil, which has its own particular molecular composition, weight, and boiling point.