16-letter words containing d, e, s, c
- costume designer — a person who designs costumes for plays and films
- 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.
- counterevidences — Plural form of counterevidence.
- 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
- creditworthiness — having a satisfactory credit rating.
- 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
- cross one's mind — to occur to one briefly or suddenly
- crossover bodice — a bodice which has one side crossing over the other
- crossword puzzle — a puzzle in which the solver deduces words suggested by numbered clues and writes them into corresponding boxes in a grid to form a vertical and horizontal pattern
- crowd one's luck — to take unnecessary risks in an already favorable situation
- 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
- curmudgeonliness — The state or condition of being curmudgeonly.
- 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
- cut down to size — to reduce the prestige or importance of
- 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.
- decision problem — (theory) A problem with a yes/no answer. Determining whether some potential solution to a question is actually a solution or not. E.g. "Is 43669" a prime number?". This is in contrast to a "search problem" which must find a solution from scratch, e.g. "What is the millionth prime number?". See decidability.
- decision support — Software used to aid management decision making, typically relying on a decision support database.
- declassification — to remove the classification from (information, a document, etc.) that restricts access in terms of secrecy, confidentiality, etc. Compare classification (def 5).
- deconstructively — In a deconstructive manner.
- deferred success — (in Britain) a euphemism suggested as an alternative to ‘failure’, in order not to stigmatize pupils who have not achieved a pass in a particular subject
- deficit spending — Deficit spending is an economic policy in which a government spends more money raised by borrowing than it receives in revenue.
- dehydroascorbate — (organic compound) Any salt or ester of dehydroascorbic acid.
- delaying tactics — techniques used to delay sth
- delta conversion — delta reduction
- demoiselle crane — a gray crane, Anthropoides virgo, of northern Africa, Europe, and Asia, having long, white plumes behind each eye.
- dental insurance — Dental insurance is insurance that pays for treatment by a dentist.
- dentist's office — A dentist's office is the room or house where a dentist works.
- dependent clause — a clause that cannot function syntactically as a complete sentence by itself but has a nominal, adjectival, or adverbial function within a larger sentence; subordinate clause (Ex.: She will visit us if she can.)
- dephlogisticated — Simple past tense and past participle of dephlogisticate.
- depth psychology — the study of unconscious motives and attitudes
- deputy secretary — the Deputy Secretary of State or Defense etc
- derbyshire chair — a chair of the mid-17th century, made of oak, usually without arms, and having a back of two carved rails between square uprights.
- descending colon — the last portion of the colon, beginning at the upper left abdomen in the region of the spleen and continuing downward along the left posterior wall to the sigmoid flexure.