16-letter words containing e, t, r
- critical section — A non-re-entrant piece of code that can only be executed by one process at a time. It will usually terminate in bounded time and a process will only have to wait a bounded time to enter it. Some synchronisation mechanism is required at the entry and exit of the critical section to ensure exclusive use.
- cromwell current — an equatorial Pacific current, flowing eastward from the Hawaiian Islands to the Galápagos Islands
- cross protection — the protection against a viral infection given to a plant by its prior inoculation with a related but milder virus
- cross-cut chisel — a chisel used for making grooves
- cross-resistance — immunologic resistance to the pathogenic effects of a microorganism because of previous exposure to another species or type having cross-reactive antigens.
- crosscontaminate — Alternative spelling of cross-contaminate.
- crossopterygians — Plural form of crossopterygian.
- crown prosecutor — In Britain, a crown prosecutor is a lawyer who works for the state and who prosecutes people who are accused of crimes.
- croydon facelift — the tightening effect on the skin of a woman's face caused by securing the hair at the back of the head in a tight ponytail
- cry for the moon — to desire the unattainable
- cryoprecipitates — Plural form of cryoprecipitate.
- cryopreservation — the storage of blood or living tissues at extremely cold temperatures, often -196 degrees Celsius.
- 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
- crystalline lens — a biconvex transparent elastic structure in the eye situated behind the iris, serving to focus images on the retina
- crystallographer — A person skilled in crystallography.
- curbstone broker — a broker in the early American stockmarket who did business in the street
- currency trading — the business of trading in different currencies in order to profit from exchange rate differentials
- current expenses — noncapital and usually recurrent expenditures necessary for the operation of a business
- curriculum vitae — A curriculum vitae is the same as a CV.
- curried function — (mathematics, programming) A function of N arguments that is considered as a function of one argument which returns another function of N-1 arguments. E.g. in Haskell we can define: average :: Int -> (Int -> Int) (The parentheses are optional). A partial application of average, to one Int, e.g. (average 4), returns a function of type (Int -> Int) which averages its argument with 4. In uncurried languages a function must always be applied to all its arguments but a partial application can be represented using a lambda abstraction: \ x -> average(4,x) Currying is necessary if full laziness is to be applied to functional sub-expressions. It was named after the logician Haskell Curry but the 19th-century logician, Gottlob Frege was the first to propose it and it was first referred to in ["Uber die Bausteine der mathematischen Logik", M. Schoenfinkel, Mathematische Annalen. Vol 92 (1924)]. Stefan Kahrs <[email protected]> reported hearing somebody in Germany trying to introduce "scho"nen" for currying and "finkeln" for "uncurrying". The verb "scho"nen" means "to beautify"; "finkeln" isn't a German word, but it suggests "to fiddle".
- curtain-twitcher — a person who likes to watch unobserved what other people are doing
- customary tenant — a tenant occupying a property under the customs of the manor, often a low-status tenant with little security of tenure
- customer profile — a description or analysis of a typical or ideal customer for one's business
- customer service — Customer service refers to the way that companies behave towards their customers, for example how well they treat them.
- customer support — Customer support is a service provided to help customers resolve any technical problems that they may have with a product or service.
- cut one's throat — to bring about one's own ruin
- cutoff frequency — a frequency level above or below which a device fails to respond or operate efficiently
- cystourethrocele — A urethrocele occurring with a cystocele.
- cytoarchitecture — (biology) The arrangement of cells in an organism or organ.
- dacryocystectomy — The surgical removal of a part of the lacrimal sac.
- dakota territory — a territory in the N central U.S., from 1861 to 1868 comprising present-day North Dakota and South Dakota, and parts of Montana and Wyoming.
- dangling pointer — (programming) A reference that doesn't actually lead anywhere. In C and some other languages, a pointer that doesn't actually point at anything valid. Usually this happens because it formerly pointed to something that has moved or disappeared, e.g. a heap-allocated block which has been freed and reused. Used as jargon in a generalisation of its technical meaning; for example, a local phone number for a person who has since moved is a dangling pointer.
- dark of the moon — the period during which the moon is not visible.
- darwinian theory — Darwin's theory of evolution, which holds that all species of plants and animals developed from earlier forms by hereditary transmission of slight variations in successive generations, and that natural selection determines which forms will survive
- data compression — the act of compressing.
- data preparation — the process of converting data or information into a form that can be read by a computer, so that the data can then be entered into the computer
- data warehousing — the use of large amounts of data taken from multiple sources to create reports and for data analysis
- database manager — a person in charge of designing, maintaining, and controlling a database
- davidson current — a winter countercurrent that flows N along the W coast of the U.S.
- daylight robbery — If someone charges you a great deal of money for something and you think this is unfair or unreasonable, you can refer to this as daylight robbery.
- dc potentiometer — A DC potentiometer is a potentiometer in which the supply is a battery and the balance is under direct current conditions.
- de-concentration — to reduce the power or control of (a corporation, industry, etc.); decentralize.
- dear john letter — a letter from someone (esp to a man) breaking off a love affair
- dearborn heights — city in SE Mich.: suburb of Detroit: pop. 58,000
- debating chamber — a room where a legislative assembly holds debates
- debenture holder — a person or organization holds a debenture
- 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.
- debt forgiveness — the action or process of forgiving people their debts
- debut appearance — debut
- decentralisation — Alternative spelling of decentralization.