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21-letter words containing s, d

  • background processing — the ability of a system to perform a low-priority task while, at the same time, dealing with a main application
  • bad conduct discharge — a discharge of a person from military service for an offense less serious than one for which a dishonorable discharge is given.
  • ball-and-socket joint — a coupling between two rods, tubes, etc, that consists of a spherical part fitting into a spherical socket, allowing free movement within a specific conical volume
  • banach-tarski paradox — (mathematics)   It is possible to cut a solid ball into finitely many pieces (actually about half a dozen), and then put the pieces together again to get two solid balls, each the same size as the original. This paradox is a consequence of the Axiom of Choice.
  • be at pains to do sth — If someone is at pains to do something, they are very eager and anxious to do it, especially because they want to avoid a difficult situation.
  • be on the danger list — to be critically ill in hospital
  • be supposed to do sth — If you say that something is supposed to happen, you mean that it is planned or expected. Sometimes this use suggests that the thing does not really happen in this way.
  • before-and-after test — a test which compares the state or function of something before intervention or modification, and after it
  • behind someone's back — without someone's knowledge or consent
  • bernadette of lourdes — Saint. original name Marie Bernarde Soubirous. 1844–79, French peasant girl born in Lourdes, whose visions of the Virgin Mary led to the establishment of Lourdes as a centre of pilgrimage, esp for the sick or crippled. Feast day: Feb 18
  • beyond (all) question — beyond (any) dispute or doubt
  • binding-time analysis — (compiler)   An analysis to identify sub-expressions which can be evaluated at compile-time or where versions of a function can be generated and called which are specialised to certain values of one or more arguments. See partial evaluation.
  • binomial distribution — a statistical distribution giving the probability of obtaining a specified number of successes in a specified number of independent trials of an experiment with a constant probability of success in each. Symbol: Bi (n, p), where n is the number of trials and p the probability of success in each
  • blot on the landscape — If you describe something such as a building as a blot on the landscape, you mean that you think it is very ugly and spoils an otherwise attractive place.
  • british standard time — the standard time used in Britain all the year round from 1968 to 1971, set one hour ahead of Greenwich Mean Time and equalling Central European Time
  • bulletin board system — (communications, application)   (BBS, bboard /bee'bord/, message board, forum; plural: BBSes) A computer and associated software which typically provides an electronic message database where people can log in and leave messages. Messages are typically split into topic groups similar to the newsgroups on Usenet (which is like a distributed BBS). Any user may submit or read any message in these public areas. The term comes from physical pieces of board on which people can pin messages written on paper for general consumption - a "physical bulletin board". Ward Christensen, the programmer and operator of the first BBS (on-line 1978-02-16) called it a CBBS for "computer bulletin board system". Since the rise of the World-Wide Web, the term has become antiquated, though the concept is more popular than ever, with many websites featuring discussion areas where users can post messages for public consumption. Apart from public message areas, some BBSes provided archives of files, personal electronic mail and other services of interest to the system operator (sysop). Thousands of BBSes around the world were run from amateurs' homes on MS-DOS boxes with a single modem line each. Although BBSes were traditionally the domain of hobbyists, many connected directly to the Internet (accessed via telnet), others were operated by government, educational, and research institutions. Fans of Usenet or the big commercial time-sharing bboards such as CompuServe, CIX and GEnie tended to consider local BBSes the low-rent district of the hacker culture, but they helped connect hackers and users in the personal-micro and let them exchange code. Use of this term for a Usenet newsgroup generally marks one either as a newbie fresh in from the BBS world or as a real old-timer predating Usenet.
  • businessman's holiday — busman's holiday.
  • carlos saavedra lamas — Carlos [kahr-laws] /ˈkɑr lɔs/ (Show IPA), 1878?–1959, Argentine statesman and diplomat: Nobel Peace Prize 1936.
  • cartesian coordinates — a system of representing points in space in terms of their distance from a given origin measured along a set of mutually perpendicular axes. Written (x,y,z) with reference to three axes
  • cascading style sheet — a file recording style details, such as fonts, colours, etc, that is read by browsers so that style is consistent over multiple web pages
  • castellon de la plana — a port in E Spain. Pop: 160 714 (2003 est)
  • category merchandiser — A category merchandiser is a person whose job is to maintain stocks, manage displays and promote sales of a certain product category such as footwear.
  • central standard time — one of the standard times used in North America, based on the local time of the 90° meridian, six hours behind Greenwich Mean Time
  • charles edward stuart — a member of the royal family that ruled in Scotland from 1371 to 1714 and in England from 1603 to 1714.
  • cheese and wine party — a party at which cheese and wine are served
  • child-directed speech — baby talk (def 2).
  • choledochojejunostomy — (medicine) The surgical formation of an opening between the common bile duct and the jejunum.
  • christmas decorations — decorations of different kinds appropriate to Christmas, such as tinsel, candles, images of angels, etc.
  • class-relation method — (programming)   A design technique based on the concepts of object-oriented programming and the Entity-Relationship model from the French company Softeam.
  • closed-angle glaucoma — angle-closure glaucoma. See under glaucoma.
  • clostridium difficile — Clostridium difficile is a bacterium that causes severe diarrhoea. It is commonly found in hospitals. C.diff is also used.
  • column address strobe — (hardware)   (CAS) A signal sent from a processor (or memory controller) to a dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) (qv) circuit to indicate that the column address lines are valid.
  • comfortably-furnished — containing comfortable furniture
  • committal proceedings — a preliminary hearing in a magistrates' court to decide if there is a case to answer
  • computer aided design — (application)   (CAD) The part of CAE concerning the drawing or physical layout steps of engineering design. Often found in the phrase "CAD/CAM" for ".. manufacturing".
  • computer-aided design — the use of computer techniques in designing products, esp involving the use of computer graphics
  • conditional discharge — If someone who is convicted of an offence is given a conditional discharge by a court, they are not punished unless they later commit a further offence.
  • confidence and supply — denoting an arrangement in a hung parliament in which an opposition party agrees not to vote against a minority government in votes of confidence or budgetary matters but reserves the right to oppose other legislation
  • confused flour beetle — a brown flour beetle, Tribolium confusum, that feeds on stored grain and grain products.
  • construction industry — a branch of commercial enterprise concerned with the construction of buildings, bridges, etc
  • consultation document — a report that is the result of a consultation process
  • corpuscular radiation — radiation consisting of atomic and subatomic particles, as alpha particles, beta particles, and neutrons.
  • correspondence column — a section of a newspaper or magazine in which are printed readers' letters to the editor
  • correspondence course — A correspondence course is a course in which you study at home, receiving your work by post and sending it back by post.
  • correspondence school — an educational institution that offers tuition (correspondence courses) by post
  • correspondence theory — the theory of truth that a statement is rendered true by the existence of a fact with corresponding elements and a similar structure.
  • cosmological redshift — the part of the redshift of celestial objects resulting from the expansion of the universe.
  • cost driver attribute — (programming)   Factors affecting the productivity of software development. These include attributes of the software, computers, personnel, and project.
  • counterdemonstrations — Plural form of counterdemonstration.
  • credit card insurance — Credit card insurance is coverage for situations in which someone fraudulently uses your credit card.
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