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20-letter words containing s, e, r, o

  • crossover distortion — distortion that sometimes occurs at a frequency (crossover frequency) at which a crossover network switches signals from one speaker to another.
  • cut one's own throat — to be the means of one's own ruin
  • cytosine arabinoside — cytarabine.
  • darkfield microscope — kind of microscope
  • database transaction — (database)   A set of related changes applied to a database. The term typically implies that either all of the changes should be applied or, in the event of an error, none of them, i.e. the transaction should be atomic. Atomicity is one of the ACID properties a transaction can have, another is isolation - preventing interference between processes trying to access the database cocurrently. This is usually achieved by some form of locking - where one process takes exclusive control of a database table or row for the duration of the transaction, preventing other processes from accessing the locked data. The canonical example of a transaction is transferring money between two bank accounts by subtracting it from one and adding it to the other. Some relational database management systems require the user to explicitly start a transaction and then either commit it (if all the individual steps are successful) or roll it back (if there are any errors).
  • de facto segregation — racial, ethnic, or other segregation resulting from societal differences between groups, as socioeconomic or political disparity, without institutionalized legislation intended to segregate.
  • decomposed petri net — (parallel)   (DPN) A Petri net that has been split into multiple, interconnected nets. This makes it easier to analyse or run the net. DPNs are the basis of concurrency in ConC.
  • deep vein thrombosis — Deep vein thrombosis is a serious medical condition caused by blood clots in the legs moving up to the lungs. The abbreviation DVT is also used.
  • deep-vein thrombosis — a condition in which a blood clot forms in a vein deep beneath the skin, typically in the leg or pelvic area: Immobility and lack of exercise are risk factors for deep-vein thrombosis.
  • defense data network — (DDN) A global communications network serving the US Department of Defense. Composed of MILNET, other portions of the Internet, and classified networks which are not part of the Internet. The DDN is used to connect military installations and is managed by the Defense Information Systems Agency.
  • definite description — a description that is modified by the definite article or a possessive, such as the woman in white or Rosemary's baby
  • democratic socialism — socialism, or a modified form of socialism, achieved by a gradual transition by and under democratic political processes.
  • deoxyribonucleotides — Plural form of deoxyribonucleotide.
  • depreciation expense — A depreciation expense is the amount deducted from gross profit to allow for a reduction in the value of something because of its age or how much it has been used.
  • descriptive geometry — the study of the projection of three-dimensional figures onto a plane surface
  • descriptive notation — a method of denoting the squares on the chessboard in which each player names the files from the pieces that stand on them at the opening and numbers the ranks away from himself
  • desmopressin acetate — a vasopressin analogue, C 46 H 64 N 14 O 12 S 2 , used in the treatment of diabetes insipidus.
  • dickless workstation — (abuse)   Extremely pejorative hackerism for "diskless workstation".
  • diels-alder reaction — the reaction in which a conjugated diene combines with a double or triple bond of a given compound to form a ring of six carbon atoms.
  • difference threshold — the minimum difference between two stimuli that is just detectable by a person
  • differential housing — the casing that houses the differential of a motor vehicle
  • diplomatic secretary — secretary (def 5).
  • diplomatic-secretary — secretary (def 5).
  • direct memory access — (architecture)   (DMA) A facility of some architectures which allows a peripheral to read and write memory without intervention by the CPU. DMA is a limited form of bus mastering.
  • directory assistance — a telephone company service that furnishes telephone directory information over the telephone.
  • directory user agent — (DUA) The software that accesses the X.500 Directory Service on behalf of the directory user. The directory user may be a person or another software element.
  • discretionary income — money for luxuries
  • diskless workstation — (computer, networking)   A personal computer or workstation which has neither a hard disk nor floppy disk drive and which performs all file access via a local area network connection to a file server. The lowest level bootstrap code is stored in non-volatile storage. This uses a simple protocol such as BOOTP to request and download more sophisticated boot code and eventually, the operating system. The archtypal product was the 3Station developed by Bob Metcalfe at 3Com. Another example was the Sun 3/50. Diskless workstations are ideal when many users are running the same application. They are small, quiet, more reliable than products with disks, and help prevent both the theft of data and the introduction of viruses since the software and data available on them is controlled by the network administrator or system administrator. They do however rely on a server which becomes a disadvantage if it is heavily loaded or down. See also breath-of-life packet.
  • dispersion hardening — the strengthening of an alloy as a result of the presence of fine particles in the lattice
  • disproportionateness — The state or quality of being disproportionate or out of proportion.
  • distribution channel — trade: retailer
  • district court judge — a judge presiding over a lower court
  • do someone a service — If you do someone a service, you do something that helps or benefits them.
  • double-aspect theory — a monistic theory that holds that mind and body are not distinct substances but merely different aspects of a single substance
  • draw close/draw near — If an event or period of time is drawing closer or is drawing nearer, it is approaching.
  • draw the short straw — to be the person (as in drawing lots) to whom an unwelcome task or fate falls
  • dressed to the nines — a cardinal number, eight plus one.
  • drum and bugle corps — a marching band of drum players and buglers.
  • drunk and disorderly — If someone is charged with being drunk and disorderly, they are charged with being drunk and behaving in a noisy, offensive, or violent way in public.
  • drunk mouse syndrome — (Also "mouse on drugs") A malady exhibited by the mouse pointing device of some computers. The typical symptom is for the mouse cursor on the screen to move in random directions and not in sync with the motion of the actual mouse. Can usually be corrected by unplugging the mouse and plugging it back again. Another recommended fix for optical mice is to rotate your mouse mat 90 degrees. At Xerox PARC in the 1970s, most people kept a can of copier cleaner (isopropyl alcohol) at their desks. When the steel ball on the mouse had picked up enough cruft to be unreliable, the mouse was doused in cleaner, which restored it for a while. However, this operation left a fine residue that accelerated the accumulation of cruft, so the dousings became more and more frequent. Finally, the mouse was declared "alcoholic" and sent to the clinic to be dried out in a CFC ultrasonic bath.
  • duck-billed dinosaur — hadrosaur.
  • due process (of law) — the course of legal proceedings established by the legal system of a nation or state to protect individual rights
  • early modern english — the English language represented in printed documents of the period starting with Caxton (1476) and ending with Dryden (1700).
  • early sunday morning — a painting (1930) by Edward Hopper.
  • eastern roman empire — the eastern of the two empires created by the division of the Roman Empire in 395 ad
  • ecclesiastical court — a church court in ecclesiastical matters, presided over by members of the clergy and usually having no compulsory jurisdiction.
  • economic determinism — the doctrine that all social, cultural, political, and intellectual forms are determined by or result from such economic factors as the quality of natural resources, productive capability, technological development, or the distribution of wealth.
  • economic rationalism — an economic policy based on the efficiency of market forces, characterized by minimal government intervention, tax cuts, privatization, and deregulation of labour markets
  • edward the confessor — Saint, 1002?–66, English king 1042–66: founder of Westminster Abbey.
  • eight queens problem — eight queens puzzle
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