16-letter words containing r, u, d, a, s
- crash test dummy — a dummy used in crash tests
- cumberland sauce — a cold sauce made from orange and lemon juice, port, and redcurrant jelly, served with ham, game, or other meat
- curlew sandpiper — a common Eurasian sandpiper, Calidris ferruginea, having a brick-red breeding plumage and a greyish winter plumage
- currier and ives — any of a 19th-cent. series of prints showing the manners, people, and events of the times
- dandruff shampoo — a preparation of soap or detergent used to wash the hair and which helps to control and reduce dandruff
- 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.
- 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.
- deindustrialised — Simple past tense and past participle of deindustrialise.
- deindustrialized — Simple past tense and past participle of deindustrialize.
- demerara (sugar) — a coarse, light-brown sugar
- dental insurance — Dental insurance is insurance that pays for treatment by a dentist.
- departure signal — a piece of equipment beside a railway which indicates to train drivers whether they should depart or not
- depressurization — to remove the air pressure from (a pressurized compartment of an aircraft or spacecraft).
- deputy secretary — the Deputy Secretary of State or Defense etc
- diesel-hydraulic — a locomotive driven by a diesel engine through hydraulic transmission and torque converters
- dinosaurs mating — (humour) The activity said to occur when yet another big iron merger or buy-out occurs; reflects a perception by hackers that these signal another stage in the long, slow dying of the mainframe industry. Also described as "elephants mating": lots of noise and action at a high level, with an eventual outcome in the somewhat distant future. In its glory days of the 1960s, it was "IBM and the Seven Dwarves": Burroughs, Control Data, General Electric, Honeywell, NCR, RCA, and Univac. Early on, RCA sold out to Univac and GE also sold out, and it was "IBM and the BUNCH" (an acronym for Burroughs, Univac, NCR, Control Data, and Honeywell) for a while. Honeywell was bought out by Bull. Univac in turn merged with Sperry to form Sperry/Univac, which was later merged (although the employees of Sperry called it a hostile takeover) with Burroughs to form Unisys in 1986 (this was when the phrase "dinosaurs mating" was coined). In 1991 AT&T absorbed NCR, only to spit it out again in 1996. Unisys bought Convergent Technologies in 1988 and later others. More such earth-shaking unions of doomed giants seem inevitable.
- discussion board — a website or section of a website that is used for public discussion of a specific topic and on which users can submit or read messages: You should post your questions on a parenting message board and get support from other parents.
- disequilibration — to put out of equilibrium; unbalance: A period of high inflation could disequilibrate the monetary system.
- disreputableness — The state or quality of being disreputable or disgraceful; disreputability.
- distributionally — In a distributional manner.
- distributive law — a theorem asserting that one operator can validly be distributed over another
- divisional court — a high court in which at least two judges sit
- double monastery — a religious community of both men and women who live in separate establishments under the same superior and who worship in a common church.
- double solitaire — a game of solitaire for two persons, each player usually having a pack and layout but pooling foundations with the opponent.
- double-breasting — the practice of employing nonunion workers, especially in a separate division, to supplement the work of higher-paid union workers.
- drumhead service — a religious service attended by members of a military unit while in the field
- drunkard's chair — a low, deep armchair of the 18th century.
- dual personality — a disorder in which an individual possesses two dissociated personalities.
- ducks and drakes — Also, duck and drake. a pastime in which flat stones or shells are thrown across water so as to skip over the surface several times before sinking.
- dunderheadedness — Stupidity.
- duplessis-mornay — Philippe [fee-leep] /fiˈlip/ (Show IPA), Mornay, Philippe de.
- external student — a student studying a university subject extramurally
- farmer's reducer — a solution of ferricyanide and hypo for reducing density and increasing contrast in a negative.
- farquhar islands — an island group in the Indian Ocean: administratively part of the Seychelles
- fashion industry — the industry that deals with the world of fashion
- focused strategy — a business strategy in which an organization divests itself of all but its core activities, using the funds raised to enhance the distinctive abilities that give it an advantage over its rivals
- for a good cause — If you say that something is for a good cause, you mean that it is worth doing or giving to because it will help other people, for example by raising money for charity.
- for good measure — a unit or standard of measurement: weights and measures.
- forbush decrease — the sudden decrease in the intensity of cosmic rays after an increase in solar activity.
- founders' shares — shares awarded to the founders of a company and often granting special privileges
- four-dimensional — of a space having points, or a set having elements, which require four coordinates for their unique determination.
- four-masted brig — jackass bark (def 2).
- fund supermarket — an online facility offering discounted investment opportunities and advice
- fundamental star — one of a number of stars with positions that have been determined accurately and that are used as reference stars for the determination of positions of other celestial objects.
- gadsden purchase — a tract of 45,535 sq. mi. (117,935 sq. km), now contained in New Mexico and Arizona, purchased for $10,000,000 from Mexico in 1853, the treaty being negotiated by James Gadsden.
- gallium arsenide — a crystalline and highly toxic semiconductor, GaAs, used in light-emitting diodes, lasers, and electronic devices.
- gaudeamus igitur — let us therefore rejoice
- gold-of-pleasure — a yellow-flowered Eurasian plant, Camelina sativa, widespread as a weed, esp in flax fields, and formerly cultivated for its oil-rich seeds: family Brassicaceae (crucifers)
- graduate student — postgraduate-level student