17-letter words containing o, p
- 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
- damp-proof course — A damp-proof course is the same as a damp course.
- daphnis and chloe — two lovers in pastoral literature, esp in a prose idyll attributed to the Greek writer Longus
- dark-complexioned — (of a person) having a dark complexion
- david copperfield — a novel (1850) by Charles Dickens.
- 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.
- deep-frozen foods — foodstuffs that have been frozen for storage
- deepwater horizon — an offshore oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico, 40 miles (64km) south-east off the coast of Louisiana, that suffered a massive oil spill following an explosion in April 2010
- 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.
- deportation order — a notification that a foreign national is legally required to leave the country
- deprofessionalise — to remove from professional control, influence, manipulation, etc.
- deprofessionalize — to remove from professional control, influence, manipulation, etc.
- desktop publisher — desktop publishing
- despotic monarchy — absolute monarchy.
- development grant — a grant awarded, esp by a government, to a person or company in order to fund the development of a new product
- developmentalists — an expert in or advocate of developmental psychology.
- dextroamphetamine — a dextrorotatory amphetamine, used to suppress appetite
- dialect geography — linguistic geography
- dielectrophoresis — Dielectrophoresis is the movement of uncharged particles (= ones with no electrical charge) when a changing electric field is applied.
- digital audiotape — a cassette containing magnetic tape used for high-fidelity digital recording or playback of audio. Abbreviation: DAT.
- digital footprint — one's unique set of digital activities, actions, and communications that leave a data trace on the Internet or on a computer or other digital device and can identify the particular user or device: Our online browsing habits are part of our passive digital footprint, created without our consent or knowledge, but our active digital footprint, especially on social media, can more easily be managed. Compare footprint (def 4).
- dihydromorphinone — a narcotic compound, C 17 H 19 O 3 N, prepared from morphine and used chiefly as an analgesic.
- diphenylhydantoin — a white, slightly water-soluble powder, C 15 H 11 N 2 O 2 , used in the form of its sodium salt to prevent or arrest convulsions in epilepsy.
- 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
- discrete preorder — (mathematics) A preorder is said to be discrete if any two of its elements are incomparable.
- disorderly person — a person guilty of disorderly conduct.
- dispassionateness — The state or quality of being dispassionate.
- dispensationalism — the interpreting of history as a series of divine dispensations.
- disposable income — the part of a person's income remaining after deducting personal income taxes.
- disproportionally — not in proportion; disproportionate.
- disproportionates — Third-person singular simple present indicative form of disproportionate.
- 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.
- dna amplification — an increase in the frequency of replication of a DNA segment.
- doberman pinscher — one of a German breed of medium-sized, short-haired dogs having a black, brown, or blue coat with rusty brown markings.
- dog and pony show — an elaborate sales, advertising, or publicity presentation or campaign.
- doorstep salesman — a door-to-door salesman
- double pair royal — a set of four cards of the same denomination, worth 12 points.
- down in the dumps — If you are down in the dumps, you are feeling very depressed and miserable.
- down the plughole — If you say that something has gone down the plughole, you mean that it has failed or has been lost or wasted.
- dramatis personae — (used with a plural verb) the characters in a play.
- drilling platform — a structure, either fixed to the sea bed or mobile, which supports the machinery and equipment (the drilling rig), together with the stores, required for digging an offshore oil well
- drool-proof paper — (jargon) Documentation that has been obsessively dumbed down, to the point where only a cretin could bear to read it, is said to have succumbed to the "drool-proof paper syndrome" or to have been "written on drool-proof paper". For example, this is an actual quote from Apple Computer's LaserWriter manual: "Do not expose your LaserWriter to open fire or flame."
- drop on the floor — To react to an error condition by silently discarding messages or other valuable data. "The gateway ran out of memory, so it just started dropping packets on the floor." Also frequently used of faulty mail and netnews relay sites that lose messages. See also black hole, bit bucket.
- drop one's bundle — several objects or a quantity of material gathered or bound together: a bundle of hay.