17-letter words containing i, t, s, p
- cost-plus pricing — the setting of prices at the cost price plus a percentage
- counter-espionage — Counter-espionage is the same as counter-intelligence.
- counterparty risk — the risk that a person who is a party to a contract will default on their obligations under that contract
- courtship display — behaviour that is aimed at attracting a mate
- critical pressure — the pressure of a gas or the saturated vapour pressure of a substance in its critical state
- cross-pollination — the transfer of pollen from the anthers of one flower to the stigma of another flower by the action of wind, insects, etc
- cryopreservations — the storage of blood or living tissues at extremely cold temperatures, often -196 degrees Celsius.
- cryptic crossword — a crossword where each clue is a word puzzle
- cryptocrystalline — (of rocks) composed of crystals that can be distinguished individually only by the use of a polarizing microscope
- cryptosporidiosis — a disease caused by protozoan parasites of the genus Cryptosporidium, characterized by fever and gastrointestinal symptoms and typically spread via contaminated drinking water.
- cypriot syllabary — a syllabic script in use on Cyprus in the first millennium b.c., used for the writing of Greek and of an unknown language.
- cytotrophoblastic — Relating to, or containing, cytotrophoblasts.
- dagestan republic — a constituent republic of S Russia, on the Caspian Sea: annexed from Persia in 1813; rich mineral resources. Capital: Makhachkala. Pop: 2 584 200 (2002). Area: 50 278 sq km (19 416 sq miles)
- damon and pythias — two friends noted for their mutual loyalty. Damon offered himself as a hostage for Pythias, who was to be executed for treason by Dionysius of Syracuse. When Pythias returned to save his friend's life, he was pardoned
- de-specialization — the act of specializing, or pursuing a particular line of study or work: Medical students with high student loans often feel driven into specialization.
- dehospitalization — hospitalization insurance.
- depersonalisation — Alternative spelling of depersonalization.
- depersonalization — the act or an instance of depersonalizing
- dephlogisticating — Present participle of dephlogisticate.
- dephosphorylation — the removal of a phosphate group from an organic compound, as in the changing of ATP to ADP.
- desktop publisher — desktop publishing
- despotic monarchy — absolute monarchy.
- developmentalists — an expert in or advocate of developmental psychology.
- diaphragm shutter — a camera shutter having a group of overlapping blades that open and close at the center when exposing film.
- dielectrophoresis — Dielectrophoresis is the movement of uncharged particles (= ones with no electrical charge) when a changing electric field is applied.
- dipped headlights — road vehicle headlights which have been switched from the main to the lower beam
- dipterocarpaceous — of, relating to, or belonging to the Dipterocarpaceae, a family of trees chiefly native to tropical SE Asia, having two-winged fruits. Many species yield useful timber and resins
- disaster planning — disaster recovery
- discrete preorder — (mathematics) A preorder is said to be discrete if any two of its elements are incomparable.
- dispassionateness — The state or quality of being dispassionate.
- dispensationalism — the interpreting of history as a series of divine dispensations.
- displacement hull — a hull that displaces a significant volume of water when under way.
- display standards — display standard
- disproportionally — not in proportion; disproportionate.
- disproportionates — Third-person singular simple present indicative form of disproportionate.
- disrespectability — Lack of respectability.
- disrespectfulness — The state or quality of being disrespectful; disrespect; disregard.
- disruptive action — action performed by protestors, workers, etc that causes the disruption of a service
- dissipation trail — a clear rift left behind an aircraft flying through a thin cloud layer.
- dissociated press — [Play on "Associated Press"; perhaps inspired by a reference in the 1949 Bugs Bunny cartoon "What's Up, Doc?"] An algorithm for transforming any text into potentially humorous garbage even more efficiently than by passing it through a marketroid. The algorithm starts by printing any N consecutive words (or letters) in the text. Then at every step it searches for any random occurrence in the original text of the last N words (or letters) already printed and then prints the next word or letter. Emacs has a handy command for this. Here is a short example of word-based Dissociated Press applied to an earlier version of the Jargon File: wart: A small, crocky feature that sticks out of an array (C has no checks for this). This is relatively benign and easy to spot if the phrase is bent so as to be not worth paying attention to the medium in question. Here is a short example of letter-based Dissociated Press applied to the same source: window sysIWYG: A bit was named aften /bee't*/ prefer to use the other guy's re, especially in every cast a chuckle on neithout getting into useful informash speech makes removing a featuring a move or usage actual abstractionsidered interj. Indeed spectace logic or problem! A hackish idle pastime is to apply letter-based Dissociated Press to a random body of text and vgrep the output in hopes of finding an interesting new word. (In the preceding example, "window sysIWYG" and "informash" show some promise.) Iterated applications of Dissociated Press usually yield better results. Similar techniques called "travesty generators" have been employed with considerable satirical effect to the utterances of Usenet flamers; see pseudo.
- down in the dumps — If you are down in the dumps, you are feeling very depressed and miserable.
- dramatis personae — (used with a plural verb) the characters in a play.
- east grand rapids — a town in W central Michigan, near Grand Rapids.
- east pacific rise — a long north-south elevation of the sea floor in the E Pacific Ocean extending southward from SW Mexico to the Antarctic Ocean.
- eastern townships — an area of central Canada, in S Quebec: consists of 11 townships south of the St Lawrence
- ectoparasiticides — Plural form of ectoparasiticide.
- egyptian brackets — (programming, humour) A humourous term for K&R indent style, referring to the "one hand up in front, one down behind" pose which popular culture inexplicably associates with Egypt.
- electrodeposition — The deposition of a metal on a cathode during electrolysis; used as a method of purification.
- electrophysiology — The branch of physiology that deals with the electrical phenomena associated with nervous and other bodily activity.
- electropositivity — (uncountable) the condition of being electropositive.