16-letter words containing s, e, c, o
- 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.
- declassification — to remove the classification from (information, a document, etc.) that restricts access in terms of secrecy, confidentiality, etc. Compare classification (def 5).
- deconstructively — In a deconstructive manner.
- dehydroascorbate — (organic compound) Any salt or ester of dehydroascorbic acid.
- delta conversion — delta reduction
- demoiselle crane — a gray crane, Anthropoides virgo, of northern Africa, Europe, and Asia, having long, white plumes behind each eye.
- dentist's office — A dentist's office is the room or house where a dentist works.
- dephlogisticated — Simple past tense and past participle of dephlogisticate.
- depth psychology — the study of unconscious motives and attitudes
- descending colon — the last portion of the colon, beginning at the upper left abdomen in the region of the spleen and continuing downward along the left posterior wall to the sigmoid flexure.
- descent function — If a recursive function is of the form f x = ... f (d x) ... then d is known as the descent function.
- destroyer escort — a lightly armed warship smaller than a destroyer, designed to escort fleets or convoys
- devil's advocate — If you play devil's advocate in a discussion or debate, you express an opinion which you may not agree with but which is very different to what other people have been saying, in order to make the argument more interesting.
- devonshire cream — clotted cream.
- 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
- direct discourse — quotation of a speaker in which the speaker's exact words are repeated.
- direct-mail shot — the posting of unsolicited sales literature to potential customers' homes or business addresses
- direction cosine — the cosine of the angle made by a given vector and a coordinate axis.
- director's chair — a lightweight folding armchair with transversely crossed legs and having a canvas seat and back panel, as traditionally used by motion-picture directors.
- disaccreditation — to take away the accreditation or authorization of: to disaccredit a diplomat.
- disclosing agent — a vegetable dye, administered as a liquid or in tablet form (disclosing tablet), that stains plaque, making it readily apparent on the teeth
- disconcertedness — The characteristic of being disconcerted.
- disconnectedness — The characteristic of being disconnected.
- disconsolateness — (uncountable) The state of being disconsolate; gloom.
- discontentedness — The state or quality of being discontented.
- discountenancing — Present participle of discountenance.
- discourteousness — The state or quality of being discourteous.
- discovered check — a check that is effected by moving an intervening piece from the line of attack of a queen, rook, or bishop.
- discovery method — a largely unstructured, situational method or philosophy of teaching whereby students are permitted to find solutions to problems on their own or at their own pace, often jointly in group activities, either independent of or under the guidance of a teacher.
- 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.
- distance modulus — a measure of the distance, r, of a celestial object too far away to show measurable parallax. It is given by m–M = 5 log(r/10), where m is its apparent magnitude (corrected for interstellar absorption) and M is its absolute magnitude
- diversifications — Plural form of diversification.
- do the necessary — to do something that is necessary in a particular situation
- doctor's surgery — A doctor's surgery is the same as a doctor's office.
- dolichocephalism — (medicine) The quality or condition of being dolichocephalic.
- domain selection — (systems analysis) The prioritisation and selection of one or more domains for which specific software reuse engineering projects are to be initiated.
- 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.
- domestic science — home economics.
- domestic servant — person employed to do household chores
- domestic service — the work of household servants
- double precision — using twice the normal amount of storage, as two words rather than one, to represent a number.
- dramatic society — an amateur dramatics club
- drugstore cowboy — a young man who loafs around drugstores or on street corners.
- duchess of malfi — a tragedy (1614?) by John Webster.
- dynamic response — The dynamic response of a machine, structure, or process is how it reacts over time to something that is done to it.
- east coast fever — a disease of cattle, endemic in east and central Africa, caused by a parasite, Theileria parva, that is carried by ticks
- easter communion — the act of receiving communion in church on Easter Day - considered special because of the primacy of Easter among Christian festivals and because many people regard taking Easter communion as a basic token of membership of their church