16-letter words containing d, e, s, a, c
- christmas dinner — the main meal on Christmas day, eaten any time in the afternoon or evening
- circumstantiated — Simple past tense and past participle of circumstantiate.
- clearsightedness — The property of being clearsighted.
- cloak-and-suiter — a manufacturer or seller of clothing.
- cloistered vault — a vault having the form of a number of intersecting coves.
- close by/at hand — Something that is close by or close at hand is near to you.
- closed-captioned — (of a video recording) having subtitles which appear on screen only if the cassette is played through a special decoder
- cluster headache — a type of recurrent headache characterized by sudden onset and intense pain on one side of the face near the eye
- collagen disease — any of a group of diseases, as systemic lupus erythematosus, polyarteritis, scleroderma, and rheumatoid arthritis, involving inflammation or degeneration of connective tissue and accompanied by deposition of fibrinous material.
- concession stand — a stall where food, drinks, or other items are sold at a theatre or other venue
- condensed matter — crystalline and amorphous solids and liquids, including liquid crystals, glasses, polymers, and gels
- conditional sale — a sale in which the title of a property remains with the seller until some condition is met, as the payment of the full purchase price.
- confederationism — The advocacy of confederation as a means of government.
- confederationist — A supporter of confederation.
- confidentialness — The state or quality of being confidential.
- consenting adult — a male person over the age of sixteen, who may legally engage in homosexual behaviour in private
- considering that — You use considering that to indicate that you are thinking about a particular fact when making a judgment or giving an opinion.
- consubstantiated — Simple past tense and past participle of consubstantiate.
- consumer durable — Consumer durables are goods which are expected to last a long time, and are bought infrequently.
- conventionalised — to make conventional.
- cops and robbers — a children's game in which a group of players imitate the behavior of police and of thieves, as in pursuing and capturing.
- cops-and-robbers — A cops-and-robbers film, television programme, or book is one whose story involves the police trying to catch criminals.
- cordon sanitaire — a guarded line serving to cut off an infected area
- corned beef hash — a dish consisting of corned beef chopped and mixed together with mashed potatoes and various other ingredients, then fried
- coromandel coast — the SE coast of India, along the Bay of Bengal, extending from Point Calimere to the mouth of the Krishna River
- corona discharge — an electrical discharge appearing on and around the surface of a charged conductor, caused by ionization of the surrounding gas
- cottage industry — A cottage industry is a small business that is run from someone's home, especially one that involves a craft such as knitting or pottery.
- couvade syndrome — a psychosomatic condition in which the spouse or partner of a pregnant woman experiences symptoms of childbirth or pregnancy
- crash test dummy — a dummy used in crash tests
- creme de bananes — a liqueur flavored with bananas.
- crested screamer — a goose-like aquatic bird, Chauna torquata, of the family Anhimidae of tropical and subtropical South America, having a crest on the back of its head: order Anseriformes (ducks, geese, etc)
- critical density — the density of matter that would be required to halt the expansion of the universe
- 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
- cumberland sauce — a cold sauce made from orange and lemon juice, port, and redcurrant jelly, served with ham, game, or other meat
- curlew sandpiper — a common Eurasian sandpiper, Calidris ferruginea, having a brick-red breeding plumage and a greyish winter plumage
- currier and ives — any of a 19th-cent. series of prints showing the manners, people, and events of the times
- cut a wide swath — to make an ostentatious display or forceful impression
- cyclophosphamide — an alkylating agent used in the treatment of leukaemia and lymphomas
- dacryocystectomy — The surgical removal of a part of the lacrimal sac.
- dark-side hacker — (jargon, legal) A criminal or malicious hacker; a cracker. From George Lucas's Darth Vader, "seduced by the dark side of the Force". The implication that hackers form a sort of elite of technological Jedi Knights is intended. Opposite: samurai.
- darwin's finches — the finches of the subfamily Geospizinae of the Galapagos Islands, showing great variation in bill structure and feeding habits: provided Darwin with evidence to support his theory of evolution
- data compression — the act of compressing.
- database machine — (hardware) A computer or special hardware that stores and retrieves data from a database. It is specially designed for database access and is coupled to the main (front-end) computer(s) by a high-speed channel. This contrasts with a database server, which is a computer in a local area network that holds a database. The database machine is tightly coupled to the main CPU, whereas the database server is loosely coupled via the network.
- davidson current — a winter countercurrent that flows N along the W coast of the U.S.
- dead sea scrolls — a collection of manuscripts in Hebrew and Aramaic discovered in caves near the Dead Sea between 1947 and 1956. They are widely held to have been written between about 100 bc and 68 ad and provide important biblical evidence
- 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.
- dechristianizing — Present participle of dechristianize.
- declassification — to remove the classification from (information, a document, etc.) that restricts access in terms of secrecy, confidentiality, etc. Compare classification (def 5).