20-letter words containing d, e, s, t
- bomb disposal expert — an expert in bomb disposal
- bone mineral density — a measurement of the amount of calcium and other minerals in a segment of bone, a higher mineral content indicating a higher bone density and strength, used to detect osteoporosis or monitor its treatment.
- bottle-nosed dolphin — any of several dolphins of the genus Tursiops, common in North Atlantic and Mediterranean waters, having a rounded forehead and well-defined beak.
- breadth-first search — (algorithm) A graph search algorithm which tries all one-step extensions of current paths before trying larger extensions. This requires all current paths to be kept in memory simultaneously, or at least their end points. Opposite of depth-first search. See also best first search.
- breakfast and dinner — Breakfast and dinner is a system of accommodations in a hotel or guest house, in which you pay for a room and breakfast and dinner the following day.
- bring down the house — to receive enthusiastic applause from the audience
- bring the house down — to win great applause
- brittle bone disease — bone disorder
- broaden o's/the mind — If an experience broadens your mind, it makes you more willing to accept other people's beliefs and customs.
- caesar and cleopatra — a comedy (1898) by G. B. Shaw.
- cartesian coordinate — Usually, Cartesian coordinates. a member of a system of coordinates for locating a point on a plane (Cartesian plane) by its distance from each of two intersecting lines, or in space by its distance from each of three planes intersecting at a point.
- cat's-tail speedwell — a widely cultivated Eurasian plant, Veronica spicata, of the figwort family, having blue flowers in long, spikelike clusters.
- catherine de medicis — (Caterina de' Medici) 1518–89, queen of Henry II of France (mother of Francis II, Charles IX, and Henry III).
- cavendish experiment — the experiment, conducted by Henry Cavendish, that determined the constant of gravitation by using a torsion balance and measuring the torsion produced by two masses placed at given distances from the masses on the balance.
- central bedfordshire — a unitary authority of S central England. Pop: 252 100 (2007 est). Area: 712 sq km (275 sq miles)
- chapter of accidents — a series of misfortunes
- chief superintendent — an officer of senior rank in a British police force or other similarly organized force
- child support agency — the British government agency concerned with the welfare of children
- child-abuse register — (in Britain) a list of children deemed to be at risk of abuse or injury from their parents or guardians, compiled and held by a local authority, area health authority, or NSPCC Special Unit
- childhood sweetheart — a boyfriend or girlfriend from an early stage of life
- cleansing department — the department of a local authority that collects refuse
- cognitive dissonance — an uncomfortable mental state resulting from conflicting cognitions; usually resolved by changing some of the cognitions
- come off second best — to be defeated in competition
- commissioning editor — a person who commissions authors to write books and magazine articles
- compare and contrast — note similarities, differences
- compensatory damages — sum paid for a loss
- complaints procedure — a prescribed method of lodging a complaint to an institution
- complementary strand — either of the two chains that make up a double helix of DNA, with corresponding positions on the two chains being composed of a pair of complementary bases.
- condensation nucleus — nucleus (def 5).
- conditioned response — a response that is transferred from the second to the first of a pair of stimuli. A well-known Pavlovian example is salivation by a dog when it hears a bell ring, because food has always been presented when the bell has been rung previously
- conditioned stimulus — a stimulus to which an organism has learned to make a response by classical conditioning
- conservative judaism — a movement reacting against the radicalism of Reform Judaism, rejecting extreme change and advocating moderate relaxations of traditional Jewish law, by an extension of the process by which its adherents claim traditional Orthodox Judaism evolved
- constant de rebecque — Henri Benjamin [ahn-ree ban-zha-man] /ɑ̃ˈri bɛ̃ ʒaˈmɛ̃/ (Show IPA), (Benjamin Constant) 1767–1830, French statesman and author, born in Switzerland.
- controlled explosion — the deliberate detonation of an explosive device under strictly controlled circumstances
- controlled substance — a drug regulated by the Federal Controlled Substances Acts, including opiates, depressants, stimulants, and hallucinogens
- convective discharge — the repulsion of ions of a gas by a highly charged body, creating a discernible wind.
- copulative asyndeton — a staccato effect produced by omitting copulative connectives between two or more items in a group, as in “Friends, Romans, countrymen.”.
- cost-of-living index — a numerical scale by means of which cost-of-living levels can be compared with a base number
- counterdemonstration — a demonstration that is held in reaction to another demonstration
- crime and punishment — a novel (1866) by Feodor Dostoevsky.
- crossover distortion — distortion that sometimes occurs at a frequency (crossover frequency) at which a crossover network switches signals from one speaker to another.
- cylinder head gasket — (in an automobile engine) a gasket placed between the cylinder and the cylinder heads to avoid leaks of coolant and compression
- cytosine arabinoside — cytarabine.
- database transaction — (database) A set of related changes applied to a database. The term typically implies that either all of the changes should be applied or, in the event of an error, none of them, i.e. the transaction should be atomic. Atomicity is one of the ACID properties a transaction can have, another is isolation - preventing interference between processes trying to access the database cocurrently. This is usually achieved by some form of locking - where one process takes exclusive control of a database table or row for the duration of the transaction, preventing other processes from accessing the locked data. The canonical example of a transaction is transferring money between two bank accounts by subtracting it from one and adding it to the other. Some relational database management systems require the user to explicitly start a transaction and then either commit it (if all the individual steps are successful) or roll it back (if there are any errors).
- daylight saving time — Daylight Saving Time is a period of time in the summer when the clocks are set one hour forward, so that people can have extra light in the evening.
- daylight-saving time — the civil time observed when daylight saving is adopted in a country or community.
- de facto segregation — racial, ethnic, or other segregation resulting from societal differences between groups, as socioeconomic or political disparity, without institutionalized legislation intended to segregate.
- decomposed petri net — (parallel) (DPN) A Petri net that has been split into multiple, interconnected nets. This makes it easier to analyse or run the net. DPNs are the basis of concurrency in ConC.
- deep vein thrombosis — Deep vein thrombosis is a serious medical condition caused by blood clots in the legs moving up to the lungs. The abbreviation DVT is also used.
- deep-vein thrombosis — a condition in which a blood clot forms in a vein deep beneath the skin, typically in the leg or pelvic area: Immobility and lack of exercise are risk factors for deep-vein thrombosis.