16-letter words containing p, i, s
- curlew sandpiper — a common Eurasian sandpiper, Calidris ferruginea, having a brick-red breeding plumage and a greyish winter plumage
- customer profile — a description or analysis of a typical or ideal customer for one's business
- cyclophosphamide — an alkylating agent used in the treatment of leukaemia and lymphomas
- data compression — the act of compressing.
- decision problem — (theory) A problem with a yes/no answer. Determining whether some potential solution to a question is actually a solution or not. E.g. "Is 43669" a prime number?". This is in contrast to a "search problem" which must find a solution from scratch, e.g. "What is the millionth prime number?". See decidability.
- decision support — Software used to aid management decision making, typically relying on a decision support database.
- deep in the past — long ago
- deep-sea fishing — the activity of catching fish that live in the deep parts of the sea
- deficit spending — Deficit spending is an economic policy in which a government spends more money raised by borrowing than it receives in revenue.
- depart this life — to die
- departmentalizes — Third-person singular simple present indicative form of departmentalize.
- departure signal — a piece of equipment beside a railway which indicates to train drivers whether they should depart or not
- depending on sth — You use depending on when you are saying that something varies according to the circumstances mentioned.
- dephlogisticated — Simple past tense and past participle of dephlogisticate.
- depolymerisation — (chemistry) alternative spelling of depolymerization.
- 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
- depressurization — to remove the air pressure from (a pressurized compartment of an aircraft or spacecraft).
- developmentalism — An economic theory which states that the best way for Third World countries to develop is through fostering a strong and varied internal market and to impose high tariffs on imported goods.
- developmentalist — an expert in or advocate of developmental psychology.
- devonshire split — a kind of yeast bun split open and served with whipped cream or butter and jam
- dew-point spread — the degrees of difference between the air temperature and the dew point
- 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
- dip one's toe in — to begin doing or try something new or unfamiliar
- diphosphorylated — (biochemistry) phosphorylated with two units of phosphoric acid.
- diphthongisation — The process by which a single vowel sound (monophthong) shifts to a two-vowel vocalization (diphthong).
- diplomatic corps — the entire body of diplomats accredited to and resident at a court or capital.
- disappearing act — magic trick
- discographically — In terms of discography.
- discussion group — group assembled to discuss sth
- disincorporation — to remove from an incorporated state or status.
- dispersal prison — a prison organized and equipped to accommodate a proportion of the most dangerous and highest security risk prisoners
- dispersing agent — a surface-active substance added to a suspension, usually a colloid, to improve the separation of particles and to prevent settling or clumping
- dispersive power — a measure of the ability of a substance to disperse light, equal to the quotient of the difference in refractive indices of the substance for two representative wavelengths divided by the difference of the refractive index for an intermediate wavelength and 1.
- displaced person — a person driven or expelled from his or her homeland by war, famine, tyranny, etc. Abbreviation: DP, D.P.
- displacement ton — a unit for measuring the displacement of a vessel, equal to a long ton of 2240 pounds (1016 kg) or 35 cu. ft. (1 cu. m) of seawater.
- display standard — (hardware, standard) IBM and others have introduced a bewildering plethora of graphics and text display standards for IBM PCs. The standards are mostly implemented by plugging in a video display board (or "graphics adaptor") and connecting the appropriate monitor to it. Each new standard subsumes its predecessors. For example, an EGA board can also do CGA and MDA. With the PS/2, IBM introduced the VGA standard and built it into the main system board motherboard. VGA is also available as a plug-in board for PCs from third-party vendors. Also with the PS/2, IBM introduced the 8514 high-resolution graphics standard. An 8514 adaptor board plugs into the PS/2, providing a dual-monitor capability. Graphics software had to support the major IBM graphics standards and many non-IBM, proprietary standards for displays. Either software vendors provided display drivers or display vendors provided drivers for the software package. In either case, switching software or switching display systems was fraught with compatibility problems. More colours are available from third-party vendors for some display types. See also MDA, CGA, EGA, PGA, Hercules, MCGA, VGA, SVGA, 8514, VESA.
- display terminal — Visual Display Unit
- disposable goods — consumer goods that are used up a short time after purchase, including perishables, newspapers, clothes, etc
- disproportionate — not proportionate; out of proportion, as in size or number.
- disproportioning — Present participle of disproportion.
- disputatiousness — The state or quality of being disputatious or argumentative; contentiousness.
- disreputableness — The state or quality of being disreputable or disgraceful; disreputability.
- dneprodzerzhinsk — a city in the E central Ukraine, in the SW Russian Federation in Europe, on the Dnieper River.
- do sth in person — If you do something in person, you do it yourself rather than letting someone else do it for you.
- dolichocephalism — (medicine) The quality or condition of being dolichocephalic.
- domestic partner — either member of an unmarried, cohabiting, and especially homosexual couple that seeks benefits usually available only to spouses.
- domestic prelate — an honorary distinction conferred by the Holy See upon clergy, entitling them to some of the privileges of a bishop.
- double precision — using twice the normal amount of storage, as two words rather than one, to represent a number.
- dual citizenship — Also called dual nationality. the status of a person who is a legal citizen of two or more countries.
- dual personality — a disorder in which an individual possesses two dissociated personalities.