20-letter words containing d, e, s
- devil's bit scabious — a similar and related Eurasian marsh plant, Succisa pratensis
- dewey decimal system — a frequently used system of library book classification and arrangement with ten main subject classes
- diammonium phosphate — a white, crystalline, water-soluble compound, (NH 4) 2 HPO 4 , used as fertilizer, in fire extinguishers, etc.
- diamond skin disease — a form of swine erysipelas in which diamond-shaped skin inflammations appear, often accompanied by swollen joints.
- dichotomous question — a question to which there can only be one of two answers, often "yes" or "no"
- dickless workstation — (abuse) Extremely pejorative hackerism for "diskless workstation".
- diels-alder reaction — the reaction in which a conjugated diene combines with a double or triple bond of a given compound to form a ring of six carbon atoms.
- difference threshold — the minimum difference between two stimuli that is just detectable by a person
- differential housing — the casing that houses the differential of a motor vehicle
- digital data service — (communications) (DDS) The class of service offered by telecommunications companies for transmitting digital data as opposed to voice.
- digital service unit — data service unit
- diisobutyl phthalate — a clear, colorless liquid, C 14 H 26 O 4 , used chiefly as a plasticizer for nitrocellulose.
- dimensional analysis — a method for comparing the dimensions of the physical quantities occurring in a problem to find relationships between the quantities without having to solve the problem completely. Compare dimension (def 6).
- diogenes (of sinope) — 412?-323? b.c.; Gr. philosopher: noted for founding the Cynical school of philosophy
- diophantine analysis — any of several methods for finding integral solutions for equations with more than one variable whose coefficients are integers.
- diplomatic secretary — secretary (def 5).
- diplomatic-secretary — secretary (def 5).
- direct memory access — (architecture) (DMA) A facility of some architectures which allows a peripheral to read and write memory without intervention by the CPU. DMA is a limited form of bus mastering.
- directory assistance — a telephone company service that furnishes telephone directory information over the telephone.
- directory user agent — (DUA) The software that accesses the X.500 Directory Service on behalf of the directory user. The directory user may be a person or another software element.
- disability allowance — an amount of money paid by the government to people who are unable to work because of a disability. This is a general term or, in the UK, a shorter way of referring to what is officially called the Disability Living Allowance
- disability insurance — insurance providing income to a policyholder who is disabled and cannot work.
- disciplinary hearing — a hearing at which the conduct of a member of an organization, profession etc is examined and a punishment may be handed down
- discounted cash flow — a technique for appraising an investment that takes into account the different values of future returns according to when they will be received
- discretionary income — money for luxuries
- diskless workstation — (computer, networking) A personal computer or workstation which has neither a hard disk nor floppy disk drive and which performs all file access via a local area network connection to a file server. The lowest level bootstrap code is stored in non-volatile storage. This uses a simple protocol such as BOOTP to request and download more sophisticated boot code and eventually, the operating system. The archtypal product was the 3Station developed by Bob Metcalfe at 3Com. Another example was the Sun 3/50. Diskless workstations are ideal when many users are running the same application. They are small, quiet, more reliable than products with disks, and help prevent both the theft of data and the introduction of viruses since the software and data available on them is controlled by the network administrator or system administrator. They do however rely on a server which becomes a disadvantage if it is heavily loaded or down. See also breath-of-life packet.
- dispersion hardening — the strengthening of an alloy as a result of the presence of fine particles in the lattice
- displacement current — the rate of change, at any point in space, of electric displacement with time.
- displacement tonnage — the number of long tons of water displaced by a vessel, light or load displacement being specified.
- disproportionateness — The state or quality of being disproportionate or out of proportion.
- disruptive discharge — the sudden, large increase in current through an insulating medium resulting from complete failure of the medium under electrostatic stress.
- distress merchandise — goods sold below the prevailing price in order to raise cash quickly or to meet some other financial emergency.
- distributed database — A collection of several different databases that looks like a single database to the user. An example is the Internet Domain Name System (DNS).
- distributed practice — learning with reasonably long intervals between separate occasions of learning
- distribution channel — trade: retailer
- distributive lattice — (theory) A lattice for which the least upper bound (lub) and greatest lower bound (glb) operators distribute over one another so that a lub (b glb c) == (a lub c) glb (a lub b) and vice versa. ("lub" and "glb" are written in LateX as \sqcup and \sqcap).
- district court judge — a judge presiding over a lower court
- diverticular disease — any disease of the colon involving the presence of diverticula
- do one's nut/go nuts — If someone goes nuts, or in British English does their nut, they become extremely angry.
- do someone a service — If you do someone a service, you do something that helps or benefits them.
- do someone's bidding — command; summons; invitation: I went there at his bidding.
- docosahexaenoic acid — DHA.
- domestic heating oil — a liquid petroleum product used to fuel residential building furnaces or boilers
- double decomposition — a reaction whose result is the interchange of two parts of two substances to form two new substances, as AgNO 3 + NaCl → AgCl + NaNO 3 .
- double-aspect theory — a monistic theory that holds that mind and body are not distinct substances but merely different aspects of a single substance
- draw close/draw near — If an event or period of time is drawing closer or is drawing nearer, it is approaching.
- draw the short straw — to be the person (as in drawing lots) to whom an unwelcome task or fate falls
- dressed to the nines — a cardinal number, eight plus one.
- drink with the flies — to drink alone
- drug delivery system — A drug delivery system is a system that is used as a medium or carrier for administering a pharmaceutical product to a patient.