18-letter words containing o, n, d, r
- counter-productive — Something that is counter-productive achieves the opposite result from the one that you want to achieve.
- countryside agency — (in England) a government agency that promotes the conservation and enjoyment of the countryside and aims to stimulate employment in rural areas
- crocodile-infested — full of crocodiles
- cross-disciplinary — linking two or more fields of study
- crude oil fraction — A crude oil fraction is a component of crude oil, which has its own particular molecular composition, weight, and boiling point.
- cultural diffusion — act of diffusing; state of being diffused.
- cursor dipped in x — (jargon) The metaphorical source of the electronic equivalent of a poisoned-pen letter. Derived from English metaphors of the form "pen dipped in X" (where X = e.g. "acid", "bile", "vitriol"). These map over neatly to this hackish usage (the cursor being what moves, leaving letters behind, when one is composing on-line). "Talk about a nastygram! He must've had his cursor dipped in acid when he wrote that one!"
- cushing's syndrome — a medical condition characterized by obesity, hypertension, excessive hair growth, etc., caused by an overactive adrenal gland or large doses of corticosteroids
- cyrano de bergerac — Savinien (savinjɛ̃). 1619–55, French writer and soldier, famous as a duellist and for his large nose. He became widely known through the verse drama Cyrano de Bergerac (1897) by Edmond Rostand
- dangerous offender — an offender who is deemed by a court of law to be likely to engage in further violent conduct, and who thus becomes eligible for an indefinite prison sentence
- de bruijn notation — (language) A variation of lambda notation for specifying functions using numbers instead of names to refer to formal parameters. A reference to a formal parameter is a number which gives the number of lambdas (written as \ here) between the reference and the lambda which binds the parameter. E.g. the function \ f . \ x . f x would be written \ . \ . 1 0. The 0 refers to the innermost lambda, the 1 to the next etc. The chief advantage of this notation is that it avoids the possibility of name capture and removes the need for alpha conversion.
- de-differentiation — a process by which structures or behaviors that were specialized for a specific function lose their specialization and become simplified or generalized.
- dead as a doornail — completely dead
- 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.
- decision procedure — a procedure, as an algorithm, for determining in a finite number of steps the validity of any of a certain class of propositions.
- 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)
- defense calculator — IBM 701
- deliver oneself of — to speak with deliberation or at length
- 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).
- dendrochronologist — One who carries out dendrochronology.
- departmental store — a department store.
- derestriction sign — a circular white sign with a black diagonal band signifying the lifting of any other speed restriction
- determinate growth — growth of a plant stem that is terminated early by the formation of a bud
- developing country — a nonindustrialized poor country that is seeking to develop its resources by industrialization
- development period — a length of time during which a company grows
- 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.
- 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.
- discourse analysis — the study of the rules or patterns characterizing units of connected speech or writing longer than a sentence.
- disorderly conduct — any of various petty misdemeanors, generally including nuisances, breaches of the peace, offensive or immoral conduct in public, etc.
- 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 .
- distribution class — form class
- distribution curve — the curve or line of a graph in which cumulative frequencies are plotted as ordinates and values of the variate as abscissas.
- 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
- 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.