16-letter words containing r, i, s, e, n
- creditworthiness — having a satisfactory credit rating.
- creeping thistle — a weedy Eurasian thistle, Cirsium arvense, common as a fast-spreading weed in the US
- crime of passion — a crime, often a murder, committed from passion, esp sexual passion
- crime passionnel — a crime committed from passion, esp sexual passion
- criminal justice — the system of law enforcement, involving police, lawyers, courts, and corrections, used for all stages of criminal proceedings and punishment.
- critical density — the density of matter that would be required to halt the expansion of the universe
- critical section — A non-re-entrant piece of code that can only be executed by one process at a time. It will usually terminate in bounded time and a process will only have to wait a bounded time to enter it. Some synchronisation mechanism is required at the entry and exit of the critical section to ensure exclusive use.
- cross one's mind — to occur to one briefly or suddenly
- cross protection — the protection against a viral infection given to a plant by its prior inoculation with a related but milder virus
- cross-resistance — immunologic resistance to the pathogenic effects of a microorganism because of previous exposure to another species or type having cross-reactive antigens.
- crosscontaminate — Alternative spelling of cross-contaminate.
- crossopterygians — Plural form of crossopterygian.
- cryopreservation — the storage of blood or living tissues at extremely cold temperatures, often -196 degrees Celsius.
- crystalline lens — a biconvex transparent elastic structure in the eye situated behind the iris, serving to focus images on the retina
- curlew sandpiper — a common Eurasian sandpiper, Calidris ferruginea, having a brick-red breeding plumage and a greyish winter plumage
- curmudgeonliness — The state or condition of being curmudgeonly.
- currier and ives — any of a 19th-cent. series of prints showing the manners, people, and events of the times
- cycle of erosion — the hypothetical sequence of modifications to the earth's surface by erosion, from the original uplift of the land to the ultimate low plain, usually divided into the youthful, mature, and old stages
- darwin's finches — the finches of the subfamily Geospizinae of the Galapagos Islands, showing great variation in bill structure and feeding habits: provided Darwin with evidence to support his theory of evolution
- data compression — the act of compressing.
- data warehousing — the use of large amounts of data taken from multiple sources to create reports and for data analysis
- davidson current — a winter countercurrent that flows N along the W coast of the U.S.
- dearborn heights — city in SE Mich.: suburb of Detroit: pop. 58,000
- deboursification — (jargon) Removal of irrelevant newsgroups from the Newsgroups header of a followup. The term applies particularly to the removal of frivolous groups added by one of the Kooks. See also: sneck.
- debt forgiveness — the action or process of forgiving people their debts
- decentralisation — Alternative spelling of decentralization.
- dechristianizing — Present participle of dechristianize.
- 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.
- deconstructively — In a deconstructive manner.
- deindustrialised — Simple past tense and past participle of deindustrialise.
- deindustrialized — Simple past tense and past participle of deindustrialize.
- deliberativeness — The state or quality of being deliberative.
- delirium tremens — a severe psychotic condition occurring in some persons with chronic alcoholism, characterized by delirium, tremor, anxiety, and vivid hallucinations
- delta conversion — delta reduction
- demilitarisation — The removal of a military force, usually at the end of hostilities or as part of a treaty.
- demineralisation — Alternative spelling of demineralization.
- demoiselle crane — a gray crane, Anthropoides virgo, of northern Africa, Europe, and Asia, having long, white plumes behind each eye.
- dental insurance — Dental insurance is insurance that pays for treatment by a dentist.
- 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
- 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).
- designer stubble — (on a man) facial hair that is carefully trimmed to give what is thought to be an attractive rugged slightly unshaven look
- destroying angel — a white slender very poisonous basidiomycetous toadstool, Amanita virosa, having a pronounced volva, frilled, shaggy stalk, and sickly smell
- destructibleness — The quality of being destructible.
- determinableness — Capability of being determined; determinability.
- devil's triangle — Bermuda Triangle.
- devonshire cream — clotted cream.