20-letter words containing o
- cost-of-living index — a numerical scale by means of which cost-of-living levels can be compared with a base number
- council of ministers — the EU's most important decision-making body
- council of the reich — the Reichsrat.
- council of the union — the legislature of the former Soviet Union and its successor states, consisting of an upper house (Soviet of the Union or Council of the Union) whose delegates are elected on the basis of population, and a lower house (Soviet of Nationalities or Council of Nationalities) whose delegates are elected to represent the various nationalities.
- council-manager plan — (in the US) a system of local government with an elected legislative council and an appointed administrative manager
- count one's chickens — If you say that someone is counting their chickens, you mean that they are assuming that they will be successful or get something, when this is not certain.
- counter-inflationary — designed to reduce inflation
- counter-intelligence — Counter-intelligence consists of actions that a country takes in order to find out whether another country is spying on it and to prevent it from doing so.
- counterdemonstration — a demonstration that is held in reaction to another demonstration
- counterproliferation — Action intended to prevent an increase or spread in the possession of nuclear weapons.
- counterrevolutionary — Counterrevolutionary activities are activities intended to reverse the effects of a previous revolution.
- counterrevolutionist — A counterrevolutionary.
- coupling coefficient — The coupling coefficient of a pair of coils is a measure of the magnetic effect passing between them.
- court of last resort — (in the US) a supreme court
- court of st. james's — the British royal court: so called from St. James's Palace, London, the former scene of royal receptions.
- covenant of warranty — warranty (def 2b).
- covenant-of-warranty — warranty (def 2b).
- craniosacral therapy — a form of therapy for various disorders in which the therapist manipulates the bones of the skull
- cream of tomato soup — a creamy soup made from tomatoes
- creative imagination — the faculty of imagining, or of forming mental images or concepts of what is not actually present to the senses.
- criminal proceedings — action taken in a court to bring a criminal prosecution against someone
- crisis of confidence — a serious loss of confidence
- cross someone's mind — to come suddenly or briefly to someone's mind
- cross someone's palm — to give someone money
- cross someone's path — to meet or thwart someone
- cross-country skiing — the activity of skiing across open country for pleasure
- crossover distortion — distortion that sometimes occurs at a frequency (crossover frequency) at which a crossover network switches signals from one speaker to another.
- crossword dictionary — a dictionary that lists common clues found in crossword puzzles with potential answer words. In books, the lists are usually sorted by the number of letters in the answer, while an online crossword dictionary, such as the Dictionary.com Crossword Solver, is able to analyze queries electronically, examining either the clue or the number and pattern of letters already filled in to arrive at suggested answers.
- crude oil evaluation — Crude oil evaluation is the process of assessing the chemical and physical properties of crude oil, against particular standards.
- curry favour with sb — If one person tries to curry favour with another, they do things in order to try to gain their support or co-operation.
- cut of someone's jib — someone's manner, behaviour, style, etc
- cut one's own throat — to be the means of one's own ruin
- cut the gordian knot — to find a quick, bold solution for a perplexing problem
- cutting-out scissors — a type of scissors used to cut out pieces of fabric for sewing
- cycloidal propulsion — propulsion of a vessel by propellers of controllable pitch that steer as well as propel.
- cytosine arabinoside — cytarabine.
- darkfield microscope — kind of microscope
- data dictionary file — (database) (DDF) A set of files describing the structure of a database file. DDFs define database tables and include information about file locations, field layouts and indexes. DDFs are the standard method for defining field and index characteristics for Btrieve files.
- database transaction — (database) A set of related changes applied to a database. The term typically implies that either all of the changes should be applied or, in the event of an error, none of them, i.e. the transaction should be atomic. Atomicity is one of the ACID properties a transaction can have, another is isolation - preventing interference between processes trying to access the database cocurrently. This is usually achieved by some form of locking - where one process takes exclusive control of a database table or row for the duration of the transaction, preventing other processes from accessing the locked data. The canonical example of a transaction is transferring money between two bank accounts by subtracting it from one and adding it to the other. Some relational database management systems require the user to explicitly start a transaction and then either commit it (if all the individual steps are successful) or roll it back (if there are any errors).
- de facto segregation — racial, ethnic, or other segregation resulting from societal differences between groups, as socioeconomic or political disparity, without institutionalized legislation intended to segregate.
- de la madrid hurtado — Miguel [mee-gel] /miˈgɛl/ (Show IPA), 1934–2012, Mexican political leader: president 1982–88.
- death of ivan ilyich — a short novel (1884) by Leo Tolstoy.
- debt-to-equity ratio — A company's debt-to-equity ratio is a measure of leverage that is calculated by dividing total liabilities by shareholders' equity.
- decaffeinated coffee — Decaffeinated coffee is coffee that does not contain caffeine.
- decahydronaphthalene — a colorless, aromatic liquid, C 10 H 18 , insoluble in water and soluble in alcohol and ether: used as a solvent for oils, fats, etc., in cleaning fluids, lubricants, etc.
- declaratory judgment — a judgment that merely decides the rights of parties in a given transaction, situation, or dispute but does not order any action or award damages.
- decompartmentalizing — Present participle of decompartmentalize.
- decomposed petri net — (parallel) (DPN) A Petri net that has been split into multiple, interconnected nets. This makes it easier to analyse or run the net. DPNs are the basis of concurrency in ConC.
- deduct from the bill — If you deduct an item or expense from the bill at a restaurant or hotel, you take a charge out of a customer's bill.
- deep vein thrombosis — Deep vein thrombosis is a serious medical condition caused by blood clots in the legs moving up to the lungs. The abbreviation DVT is also used.