16-letter words containing n, a, g, i
- coping mechanism — something a person does to deal with a difficult situation
- corona discharge — an electrical discharge appearing on and around the surface of a charged conductor, caused by ionization of the surrounding gas
- correcting plate — a thin lens used to correct incoming light rays in special forms of reflecting telescopes.
- cottage industry — A cottage industry is a small business that is run from someone's home, especially one that involves a craft such as knitting or pottery.
- counterattacking — Present participle of counterattack.
- counterbalancing — Present participle of counterbalance.
- counterespionage — Counterespionage is the same as counterintelligence.
- counterguerrilla — (of operations, conflicts, etc) conducted against guerrillas
- countermigration — a migration in the opposite direction.
- countersignature — second signature
- creative writing — Creative writing is writing such as novels, stories, poems, and plays.
- critical damping — the minimum amount of viscous damping that results in a displaced system returning to its original position without oscillation
- crossopterygians — Plural form of crossopterygian.
- currency trading — the business of trading in different currencies in order to profit from exchange rate differentials
- cyanogen bromide — a colorless, slightly water-soluble, poisonous, volatile, crystalline solid, BrCN, used chiefly as a fumigant and a pesticide.
- dabrowa gornicza — an industrial city in S Poland.
- dagwood sandwich — a thick sandwich filled with a variety of meats, cheeses, dressings, and condiments.
- 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.
- data warehousing — the use of large amounts of data taken from multiple sources to create reports and for data analysis
- day of reckoning — If someone talks about the day of reckoning, they mean a day or time in the future when people will be forced to deal with an unpleasant situation which they have avoided until now.
- de-anglicization — (in Ireland) the elimination of English influence, language, customs, etc
- dead man walking — a condemned man walking from his prison cell to a place of execution
- dearborn heights — city in SE Mich.: suburb of Detroit: pop. 58,000
- debating chamber — a room where a legislative assembly holds debates
- debating society — a club, e.g. at a school or university, which regularly holds debates
- dechristianizing — Present participle of dechristianize.
- deep-sea fishing — the activity of catching fish that live in the deep parts of the sea
- 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
- delaying tactics — techniques used to delay sth
- delegitimization — The act or process of delegitimizing.
- dental hygienist — a dentist's assistant skilled in dental hygiene
- deoxyhaemoglobin — (biochemistry) The form of haemoglobin that has released its oxygen.
- departure signal — a piece of equipment beside a railway which indicates to train drivers whether they should depart or not
- depression glass — cheap glassware mass-produced during the Depression of the 1930s, usually molded in patterns in pale colors, and collectible since the early 1970s
- destigmatization — The process or act of destigmatizing.
- destroying angel — a white slender very poisonous basidiomycetous toadstool, Amanita virosa, having a pronounced volva, frilled, shaggy stalk, and sickly smell
- devil's triangle — Bermuda Triangle.
- diagonal process — a form of argument in which a new member of a set is constructed from a list of its known members by making the nth term of the new member differ from the nth term of the nth member. The new member is thus different from every member of the list
- diamond drilling — drilling using a drill with a diamond-impregnated bit
- diazoamino group — the divalent group –N=NNH–.
- digital envelope — (cryptography)
- dinosaurs mating — (humour) The activity said to occur when yet another big iron merger or buy-out occurs; reflects a perception by hackers that these signal another stage in the long, slow dying of the mainframe industry. Also described as "elephants mating": lots of noise and action at a high level, with an eventual outcome in the somewhat distant future. In its glory days of the 1960s, it was "IBM and the Seven Dwarves": Burroughs, Control Data, General Electric, Honeywell, NCR, RCA, and Univac. Early on, RCA sold out to Univac and GE also sold out, and it was "IBM and the BUNCH" (an acronym for Burroughs, Univac, NCR, Control Data, and Honeywell) for a while. Honeywell was bought out by Bull. Univac in turn merged with Sperry to form Sperry/Univac, which was later merged (although the employees of Sperry called it a hostile takeover) with Burroughs to form Unisys in 1986 (this was when the phrase "dinosaurs mating" was coined). In 1991 AT&T absorbed NCR, only to spit it out again in 1996. Unisys bought Convergent Technologies in 1988 and later others. More such earth-shaking unions of doomed giants seem inevitable.
- diphthongisation — The process by which a single vowel sound (monophthong) shifts to a two-vowel vocalization (diphthong).
- diphthongization — to change into or pronounce as a diphthong.
- direct marketing — marketing direct to the consumer, as by direct mail or coupon advertising.
- director general — the executive head of an organization or of a major subdivision, as a branch or agency, of government.
- director-general — the executive head of an organization or of a major subdivision, as a branch or agency, of government.
- disagreeableness — (uncountable) The state or quality of being disagreeable.
- disappearing act — magic trick
- discharging arch — an arch for taking some of the weight from a structural member beneath it.