18-letter words containing n, a, r, d
- dead-man's fingers — any of various fungi, sponges, plant roots, animal parts, etc., having fingerlike projections and a pale or dull color, as the gray-black woodland fungus Xylaria polymorpha or the whitish spongy gills of a food crab.
- deanthropomorphism — the ridding of philosophy or religion of anthropomorphic beliefs and doctrines.
- dear john (letter) — a letter from one's fiancée or girlfriend breaking off an engagement or love affair, or from one's wife asking for a divorce
- decachlorobiphenyl — (organic compound) The fully chlorinated polychlorinated biphenyl containing ten chlorine atoms.
- dechristianization — The act of dechristianizing; the systematic removal of Christianity or Christian elements.
- declaration of war — a formal statement made by one country to another that a state of war now exists between them
- decompartmentalize — to remove excessive compartmentalization from (an organization)
- deep-sea fisherman — a person who takes part in deep-sea fishing
- defense calculator — IBM 701
- delmarva peninsula — a peninsula of the northeast US, between Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic
- demilitarized zone — an area from which military presence or function has been removed
- demorgan's theorem — (logic) A logical theorem which states that the complement of a conjunction is the disjunction of the complements or vice versa. In symbols: not (x and y) = (not x) or (not y) not (x or y) = (not x) and (not y) E.g. if it is not the case that I am tall and thin then I am either short or fat (or both). The theorem can be extended to combinations of more than two terms in the obvious way. The same laws also apply to sets, replacing logical complement with set complement, conjunction ("and") with set intersection, and disjunction ("or") with set union. A (C) programmer might use this to re-write if (!foo && !bar) ... as if (!(foo || bar)) ... thus saving one operator application (though an optimising compiler should do the same, leaving the programmer free to use whichever form seemed clearest).
- departmental store — a department store.
- dependency grammar — a type of generative grammar in which grammatical structure is determined by the relationship between a governor and its dependents
- dependent variable — a variable in a mathematical equation or statement whose value depends on that taken on by the independent variable
- destruct mechanism — a mechanism that causes the destruction of a rocket or missile when activated
- detective sergeant — a police officer who investigates crime and who ranks above a detective constable but below a detective inspector
- determinate growth — growth of a plant stem that is terminated early by the formation of a bud
- devil's paintbrush — a perennial European hawkweed (Hieracium aurantiacum) with leafless flower stalks bearing a cluster of orange-red heads: now a common weed in N U.S. and Canada
- diaminofluorescein — (organic compound) A fluorescein into which two amino groups have been substituted.
- diamondback turtle — any edible North American terrapin of the genus Malaclemys, esp M. terrapin, occurring in brackish and tidal waters and having diamond-shaped markings on the shell: family Emydidae
- dictionary catalog — a library catalog having all its entries, including authors, titles, subjects, etc., in one general alphabetical sequence.
- dielectric heating — the heating of a nonconducting substance caused by dielectric loss when the material is placed in a variable electric field.
- dietary supplement — a substance taken in addition to what you eat in order to promote health
- digital signatures — digital signature
- dimethyltryptamine — a hallucinogenic drug, C 12 H 16 N 2 , with an action of short duration. Abbreviation: DMT.
- diphtheria vaccine — a vaccine used to produce immunity against diphtheria
- direct examination — the first interrogation of a witness by the side that has called that witness.
- directional signal — any of four signal lights on the front left, front right, rear left, and rear right of an automotive vehicle that, when actuated by the driver, flash in pairs on the side toward which a turn is to be made.
- discharge printing — a fabric-printing method in which the material is dyed and then certain areas are discharged so as to permit the original hue or its color replacement to act as a pattern against the colored ground.
- discourse analysis — the study of the rules or patterns characterizing units of connected speech or writing longer than a sentence.
- disenfranchisement — to disfranchise.
- disproportionality — not in proportion; disproportionate.
- disproportionately — not proportionate; out of proportion, as in size or number.
- disproportionation — the simultaneous oxidation and reduction of a substance reacting with itself, thereby forming two dissimilar molecules, as 2C 2 H 4 →C 2 H 6 +C 2 H 2 .
- distracted driving — driving a vehicle while engaging in an activity that has the potential to distract the driver from the task of driving: Bans on cell phone use in cars will help to reduce the dangers of distracted driving.
- distribution class — form class
- distribution ratio — the ratio of concentrations of a solute distributed between two immiscible solvents in contact with each other, as iodine in water and chloroform
- divine inspiration — insight provided by higher power
- division algorithm — the theorem that an integer can be written as the sum of the product of two integers, one a given positive integer, added to a positive integer smaller than the given positive integer. Compare Euclidean algorithm.
- division of labour — a system of organizing the manufacture of an article in a series of separate specialized operations, each of which is carried out by a different worker or group of workers
- dna fingerprinting — the use of a DNA probe for the identification of an individual, as for the matching of genes from a forensic sample with those of a criminal suspect.
- do a roaring trade — If someone does a roaring trade in a type of goods, they sell a lot of them.
- doctype decoration — (humour) When a web author adds a doctype declaration but doesn't bother to write valid HTML.
- dodecadodecahedron — (geometry) A nonconvex polyhedron with twenty-four faces, thirty vertices, and sixty edges.
- domain engineering — (systems analysis) 1. The development and evolution of domain specific knowledge and artifacts to support the development and evolution of systems in the domain. Domain engineering includes engineering of domain models, components, methods and tools and may also include asset management. 2. The engineering process of analysing and modelling a domain, designing and modelling a generic solution architecture for a product line within that domain, implementing and using reusable components of that architecture and maintaining and evolving the domain, architecture and implementation models. 3. A reuse-based approach to defining the scope (domain definition), specifying the structure (domain architecture) and building the Assets (requirements, designs, software code, documentation) for a class of systems, subsystems or applications. Domain engineering can include domain definition, domain analysis, developing the domain architecture domain implementation.
- domain name server — (spelling) Domain Name System.
- dominican republic — a republic in the West Indies, occupying the E part of the island of Hispaniola. 19,129 sq. mi. (49,545 sq. km). Capital: Santo Domingo.
- donor insemination — a process which involves using sperm which has been voluntarily given for use in the insemination of another person
- dot matrix printer — (hardware, printer) A kind of printer with a vertical column of up to 48 small closely packed needles or "pins" each of which can be individually forced forward to press an ink ribbon against the paper. The print head is repeatedly scanned across the page and different combinations of needles activated at each point. Dot matrix printers are noisy compared to non-impact printers.