16-letter words containing i, l, n
- cornelian cherry — a flowering tree of the dogwood family Cornus mas
- corona australis — a small faint constellation in the S hemisphere between Ara and Pavo
- coroutine pascal — ["Control Separation in Programming languages", Lemon et al, ACM Ann Conf 1977].
- correcting plate — a thin lens used to correct incoming light rays in special forms of reflecting telescopes.
- correction fluid — a fluid, usually white, that can be painted over a mistake in writing or typing so that the correct form can be written or typed on top
- cost-efficiently — cost-effective.
- council of state — a council that deliberates on high-level policies of a government.
- council of trent — the council of the Roman Catholic Church that met between 1545 and 1563 at Trent in S Tyrol. Reacting against the Protestants, it reaffirmed traditional Catholic beliefs and formulated the ideals of the Counter-Reformation
- counter-violence — swift and intense force: the violence of a storm.
- counterbalancing — Present participle of counterbalance.
- counterclockwise — If something is moving counterclockwise, it is moving in the opposite direction to the direction in which the hands of a clock move.
- counterculturist — Counterculturalist.
- counterguerrilla — (of operations, conflicts, etc) conducted against guerrillas
- cray instability — A shortcoming of a program or algorithm that manifests itself only when a large problem is being run on a powerful machine such as a Cray. Generally more subtle than bugs that can be detected in smaller problems running on a workstation or minicomputer.
- creeping thistle — a weedy Eurasian thistle, Cirsium arvense, common as a fast-spreading weed in the US
- creole continuum — a range of language varieties in an area undergoing decreolization showing a continuous gradation from forms more like the underlying creole to those approaching the standard language.
- crime passionnel — a crime committed from passion, esp sexual passion
- criminal assault — a punishable offence of attempting to harm another person through physical contact
- criminal justice — the system of law enforcement, involving police, lawyers, courts, and corrections, used for all stages of criminal proceedings and punishment.
- criminal offence — an action which is punishable under the law
- critical damping — the minimum amount of viscous damping that results in a displaced system returning to its original position without oscillation
- critical density — the density of matter that would be required to halt the expansion of the universe
- 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.
- cross-validation — a process by which a method that works for one sample of a population is checked for validity by applying the method to another sample from the same population.
- 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
- crystalline lens — a biconvex transparent elastic structure in the eye situated behind the iris, serving to focus images on the retina
- 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.
- cycle of erosion — the hypothetical sequence of modifications to the earth's surface by erosion, from the original uplift of the land to the ultimate low plain, usually divided into the youthful, mature, and old stages
- cytotechnologist — a technician who specializes in identifying cells and cellular abnormalities.
- dakin's solution — a dilute solution containing sodium hypochlorite and boric acid, used as an antiseptic in the treatment of wounds
- 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.
- de-anglicization — (in Ireland) the elimination of English influence, language, customs, etc
- de-stalinization — the elimination of the influence of Stalin
- dead man walking — a condemned man walking from his prison cell to a place of execution
- dealcoholization — to remove some or all of the alcohol from (a drink).
- decapitalization — to deprive of capital; discourage capital formation; withdraw capital from: The government decapitalized industry with harsh tax policies.
- decentralisation — Alternative spelling of decentralization.
- decentralization — to distribute the administrative powers or functions of (a central authority) over a less concentrated area: to decentralize the national government.
- decimal currency — a system of currency in which the monetary units are parts or powers of ten
- decimal fraction — a fraction whose denominator is some power of 10, usually indicated by a dot (decimal point or point) written before the numerator: as 0.4 = 4/10; 0.126 = 126/1000.
- 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.
- 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.
- decontextualized — removed from the usual context
- dedolomitization — a metamorphic process in which the magnesium in dolomitic rock forms new minerals, as brucite and forsterite, and the calcium forms calcite.
- definite article — The word 'the' is sometimes called the definite article.
- deflationary gap — a situation in which total spending in an economy is insufficient to buy all the output that can be produced with full employment
- deflecting force — the apparent deflection (Coriolis acceleration) of a body in motion with respect to the earth, as seen by an observer on the earth, attributed to a fictitious force (Coriolis force) but actually caused by the rotation of the earth and appearing as a deflection to the right in the Northern Hemisphere and a deflection to the left in the Southern Hemisphere.
- deindustrialised — Simple past tense and past participle of deindustrialise.