23-letter words containing s, e, n, a, t
- cast in someone's teeth — (in most vertebrates) one of the hard bodies or processes usually attached in a row to each jaw, serving for the prehension and mastication of food, as weapons of attack or defense, etc., and in mammals typically composed chiefly of dentin surrounding a sensitive pulp and covered on the crown with enamel.
- catch someone off guard — If someone catches you off guard, they surprise you by doing something you do not expect. If something catches you off guard, it surprises you by happening when you are not expecting it.
- caught in the crossfire — If you are caught in the crossfire, you become involved in an unpleasant situation in which people are arguing with each other, although you do not want to be involved or say which person you agree with.
- central processing unit — the part of a computer that performs logical and arithmetical operations on the data as specified in the instructions
- character assassination — A character assassination is a deliberate attempt to destroy someone's reputation, especially by criticizing them in an unfair and dishonest way when they are not present.
- characteristic equation — Mathematics. the characteristic polynomial of a given matrix, equated to zero. Also called auxiliary equation. an equation with one variable and equated to zero, which is derived from a given linear differential equation and in which the coefficient and power of the variable in each term correspond to the coefficient and order of a derivative in the original equation.
- characteristic function — a function that assigns the value 1 to the members of a given set and the value 0 to its nonmembers
- cheyne-stokes breathing — alternating shallow and deep breathing, as in comatose patients
- chi-square distribution — a continuous single-parameter distribution derived as a special case of the gamma distribution and used esp to measure goodness of fit and to test hypotheses and obtain confidence intervals for the variance of a normally distributed variable
- chronic wasting disease — a disease found among members of the deer family, a type of transmissible spongiform encephalopathy
- circumstantial evidence — indirect evidence that tends to establish a conclusion by inference
- citizens' advice bureau — an independent charity where the public can obtain free, confidential information and advice on an extensive range of civil, consumer, and legal matters
- citrus greening disease — Plant Pathology. a bacterial disease of citrus trees, transmitted by insects of the Psyllidae family.
- civil aeronautics board — the former federal agency (1938–85) that regulated airline fares and assigned routes. Abbreviation: CAB, C.A.B.
- classification schedule — the printed scheme of a system of classification
- combinatorial chemistry — the use of chemical methods to generate all possible combinations of chemicals
- come to sb's assistance — If you come to someone's assistance, you take action to help them.
- commonwealth of nations — a voluntary association of independent nations and dependent territories linked by historical ties (as parts of the former British Empire) and cooperating on matters of mutual concern, especially regarding economics and trade.
- communications software — (communications, software) Application programs, operating system components, and probably firmware, forming part of a communication system. These different software components might be classified according to the functions within the Open Systems Interconnect model which they provide. Typical applications include a web browser, Mail User Agent, chat and telnet.
- communist international — Third International.
- communist-international — an international organization (1919–43), founded in Moscow, uniting Communist groups of various countries and advocating the attainment of their ends by violent revolution. Also called Comintern, Communist International. Compare international (def 6).
- comparative advertising — a form of advertising in which a product is compared favourably with similar products on the market
- comparative linguistics — the study of the correspondences between languages that have a common origin.
- completely normal space — a normal topological space in which every subspace is normal.
- composite colour signal — a colour television signal in which luminance and two chrominance components are encoded into a single signal
- computer-based training — Computer-Aided Instruction
- concertgebouw orchestra — an Amsterdam orchestra, established in 1888, that has been independent of the Concertgebouw hall since World War II
- concrete data structure — (theory) (CDS) A model of programming language terms developed in the context of constructing fully abstract semantics for sequential languages. A CDS is a 4-tuple (C,V,E,|-) where C is a cell, V is a value, E is an event and |- is an "enabling relation". An event is a cell and a value. A cell C is "enabled" by a set of events S if S |- C. A state is a set of events which are consistent in that the values they give for any cell are all equal. Every cell in a state is enabled.
- confessional television — television programmes, esp talk shows, in which members of the public reveal their private lives, personal problems, etc
- connection machine lisp — (language) Lisp with a parallel data structure, the 'xapping', an array of values assigned to an array of sites.
- conservative evaluation — (programming) Under this parallel evaluation strategy, no evaluation is started unless it is known to be needed. The opposite of conservative evaluation is speculative evaluation.
- consolidated deliveries — deliveries of goods to different shops in a common location by a single carrier and in a single vehicle
- constant of integration — a constant that is added to the function obtained by evaluating the indefinite integral of a given function, indicating that all indefinite integrals of the given function differ by, at most, a constant.
- constant velocity joint — A constant velocity joint is a universal joint in which the output shaft rotates at constant speed if the input shaft speed is constant.
- constant-velocity joint — a universal joint that is used in the drive train of front-wheel-drive cars and operates effectively even when the shafts being connected meet at a sharp angle.
- conversion to iteration — A transformation applied to functional programs to replace recursion with iteration. A tail-recursive function can be compiled to an iterative loop where the recursive call becomes a jump back to the start and the parameters are held in registers which are updated with new values each time around the loop. See Iteration, Tail recursion optimisation.
- corporate restructuring — a change in the business strategy of an organization resulting in diversification, closing parts of the business, etc, to increase its long-term profitability
- cost-of-living increase — a pay rise that is given because the cost of living has gone up
- court of first instance — a court in which legal proceedings are begun or first heard
- creative writing course — a course in which people are taught creative writing skills
- criminal justice system — the combination of courts and legal processes that deal with crime
- critique of pure reason — a philosophical work (1781) by Immanuel Kant.
- cryptococcal meningitis — a form of meningitis resulting from opportunistic infection by a cryptococcus fungus, occurring in persons who are immunodeficient.
- current-cost accounting — a method of accounting that values assets at their current replacement cost rather than their original cost
- cylindrical coordinates — three coordinates defining the location of a point in three-dimensional space in terms of its polar coordinates (r, θ) in one plane, usually the (x, y) plane, and its perpendicular distance, z, measured from this plane
- d'arsonval galvanometer — a galvanometer consisting of a large, fixed magnet and a light coil that swings in the magnetic field.
- d'entrecasteaux islands — a group of volcanic islands in the Pacific, off the SE coast of New Guinea: part of Papua New Guinea. Pop: 49 167 (1990 est). Area: 3141 sq km (1213 sq miles)
- dacryocystorhinostomies — Plural form of dacryocystorhinostomy.
- data acquisition system — A data acquisition system is a system that acquires data, generally by digitizing analog channels and storing the data in digital form.
- database query language — (database) A language in which users of a database can (interactively) formulate requests and generate reports. The best known is SQL.