19-letter words containing s, i, d, o
- de moivre's theorem — the theorem that a complex number raised to a given positive integral power is equal to the modulus of the number raised to the power and multiplied by the amplitude times the given power.
- de-militarised zone — (networking) (DMZ) (From the military term for an area between two opponents where fighting is prevented) DMZ Ethernets connect networks and computers controlled by different bodies. They may be external or internal. External DMZ Ethernets link regional networks with routers to internal networks. Internal DMZ Ethernets link local nodes with routers to the regional networks. Compare red zone.
- deaf without speech — (usually of a prelingually deaf person) able to utter sounds but not speak
- deathbed confession — a confession that somebody makes just before he or she dies, usually relating to some long concealed crime or secret
- deflate compression — deflate
- deflationary spiral — Geometry. a plane curve generated by a point moving around a fixed point while constantly receding from or approaching it.
- deindustrialisation — Alternative spelling of deindustrialization.
- deindustrialization — the decline in importance of manufacturing industry in the economy of a nation or area
- deinstitutionalized — Simple past tense and past participle of deinstitutionalize.
- demonstration model — a nearly new product, such as a car or washing machine, that has been used only to demonstrate its performance by a dealer and is offered for sale at a discount
- dental receptionist — a receptionist working in a dental surgery
- deoxycorticosterone — a corticosteroid hormone important in maintaining sodium and water balance in the body
- deoxyribonucleoside — a compound composed of deoxyribose and either a purine or a pyrimidine.
- departmentalisation — Alternative spelling of departmentalization.
- detective constable — a police officer who investigates crime and who is of the lowest rank
- detective inspector — a police officer who investigates crime and who ranks above a detective sergeant but below a detective chief inspector
- devil's coach-horse — a large black rove beetle, Ocypus olens, with large jaws and ferocious habits
- devils-on-horseback — a savoury of prunes wrapped in bacon slices and served on toast
- diamond anniversary — a 60th, or occasionally 75th, anniversary
- diamond-point spoon — a spoon having a handle terminating in a polygonal, pointed knob.
- dictionary of names — a dictionary of given names that indicates whether a name is usually male, female, or unisex and often includes origins as well as meanings; for example, as by indicating that Evangeline, meaning “good news,” comes from Greek. Used primarily as an aid in selecting a name for a baby, dictionaries of names may also include lists of famous people who have shared a name and information about its current popularity ranking.
- dielectric constant — Electricity. the ratio of the flux density produced by an electric field in a given dielectric to the flux density produced by that field in a vacuum.
- diethylstilbesterol — Misspelling of diethylstilbestrol\u200e.
- diethylstilboestrol — Diethylstilbestrol.
- dig one's own grave — If you say that someone is digging their own grave, you are warning them that they are doing something foolish or dangerous that will cause their own failure.
- digital electronics — (electronics) The implementation of two-valued logic using electronic logic gates such as and gates, or gates and flip-flops. In such circuits the logical values true and false are represented by two different voltages, e.g. 0V for false and +5V for true. Similarly, numbers are normally represented in binary using two different voltages to represented zero and one. Digital electronics contrasts with analogue electronics which represents continuously varying quantities like sound pressure using continuously varying voltages. Digital electronics is the foundation of modern computers and digital communications. Massively complex digital logic circuits with millions of gates can now be built onto a single integrated circuit such as a microprocessor and these circuits can perform millions of operations per second.
- dihydrostreptomycin — an antibiotic, C 21 H 41 N 7 O 12 , derived by organic synthesis from and believed to be less toxic than streptomycin: used in the form of its sulfate chiefly in the treatment of tuberculosis.
- dihydrotestosterone — (steroid) An androgenic metabolite of testosterone; used to treat certain breast cancers.
- dimethylnitrosamine — a yellow, water-soluble carcinogenic liquid, C 2 H 6 N 2 O, found in tobacco smoke and certain foods: known to be a potent carcinogen. Abbreviation: DMN, DMNA.
- direct grant school — (in Britain, formerly) a school financed by endowment, fees, and a state grant conditional upon admittance of a percentage of nonpaying pupils nominated by the local education authority
- direct-vision prism — Amici prism.
- director of studies — a member of staff at an educational institution who has responsibility for overseeing the curriculum
- directory enquiries — Directory enquiries is a service which you can telephone to find out someone's telephone number.
- disadvantageousness — The state or quality of being disadvantageous.
- disambiguation page — a page on a website that lists various websites or web pages that have or could have the same title. The user is able to select from the list that page, site etc that he or she actually wants
- disciples of christ — a Christian denomination, founded in the U.S. by Alexander Campbell in the early part of the 19th century, that rejects all creeds, holds the Bible as a sufficient rule of faith and practice, administers baptism by immersion, celebrates the Lord's Supper every Sunday, and has a congregational polity.
- disciplinary action — punishment or caution
- discovery procedure — any rigorous method by the application of which a grammar might be constructed from a corpus of utterances in a language; an algorithm leading from data to a formulation.
- discretionary trust — a trust in which the beneficiaries' shares are not fixed in the trust deed but are left to the discretion of other persons, often the trustees
- discriminated union — (theory) The discriminated union of two sets A and B is A + B = {(inA, a) | a in A} U {(inB, b)| b in B} where inA and inB are arbitrary tags which specify which summand an element originates from. A type (especially an algebraic data type) might be described as a discriminated union if it is a sum type whose objects consist of a tag to say which part of the union they belong to and a value of the corresponding type.
- discussion document — a document that puts forward some ideas or opinions that might form the basis of a discussion of a particular topic
- disjunctive pronoun — an inflection of pronouns in some languages that is used alone or after a preposition, such as moi in French
- dispersion relation — the relationship between the angular frequency (ω;) of a wave and the magnitude of its wave vector (k). Thus the wave's speed is ω/k
- displaced homemaker — a woman recently divorced, separated, or widowed after many years as a homemaker.
- distillation column — a type of still fitted with interior baffles, used for fractional distillation. Compare still2 (def 1).
- distribution system — The distribution system is the part of an electric system after the transmission system that is dedicated to delivering electric energy to an end user.
- diversional therapy — the structured use of leisure time in recreation and play as a form of or supplement to conventional therapy
- do not disturb sign — A do not disturb sign is a sign that a guest in a hotel hangs outside their room to tell other people not to knock the door or enter.
- dobsonian telescope — a relatively inexpensive Newtonian telescope, suitable for visual but not photographic use, in which the tube assembly slips freely in the lower base.
- doctrine of descent — the theory that animals and plants arose by descent from previously existing organisms; theory of evolution