16-letter words containing t, o, r, s
- cross protection — the protection against a viral infection given to a plant by its prior inoculation with a related but milder virus
- cross-cut chisel — a chisel used for making grooves
- cross-resistance — immunologic resistance to the pathogenic effects of a microorganism because of previous exposure to another species or type having cross-reactive antigens.
- cross-validation — a process by which a method that works for one sample of a population is checked for validity by applying the method to another sample from the same population.
- crosscontaminate — Alternative spelling of cross-contaminate.
- crossopterygians — Plural form of crossopterygian.
- crown prosecutor — In Britain, a crown prosecutor is a lawyer who works for the state and who prosecutes people who are accused of crimes.
- cryoprecipitates — Plural form of cryoprecipitate.
- cryopreservation — the storage of blood or living tissues at extremely cold temperatures, often -196 degrees Celsius.
- cryptozoologists — Plural form of cryptozoologist.
- crystal detector — a demodulator, used esp in microwave circuits and in early radio receivers, consisting of a thin metal wire in point contact with a semiconductor crystal
- crystallographer — A person skilled in crystallography.
- crystallographic — of, relating to, or dealing with crystals or crystallography.
- curbstone broker — a broker in the early American stockmarket who did business in the street
- customary tenant — a tenant occupying a property under the customs of the manor, often a low-status tenant with little security of tenure
- customer profile — a description or analysis of a typical or ideal customer for one's business
- customer service — Customer service refers to the way that companies behave towards their customers, for example how well they treat them.
- customer support — Customer support is a service provided to help customers resolve any technical problems that they may have with a product or service.
- cut one's throat — to bring about one's own ruin
- cystourethrocele — A urethrocele occurring with a cystocele.
- cytotrophoblasts — Plural form of cytotrophoblast.
- dacryocystectomy — The surgical removal of a part of the lacrimal sac.
- data abstraction — (data) Any representation of data in which the implementation details are hidden (abstracted). Abstract data types and objects are the two primary forms of data abstraction.
- data compression — the act of compressing.
- data warehousing — the use of large amounts of data taken from multiple sources to create reports and for data analysis
- davidson current — a winter countercurrent that flows N along the W coast of the U.S.
- dearborn heights — city in SE Mich.: suburb of Detroit: pop. 58,000
- deboursification — (jargon) Removal of irrelevant newsgroups from the Newsgroups header of a followup. The term applies particularly to the removal of frivolous groups added by one of the Kooks. See also: sneck.
- debt forgiveness — the action or process of forgiving people their debts
- decentralisation — Alternative spelling of decentralization.
- decision support — Software used to aid management decision making, typically relying on a decision support database.
- deconstructively — In a deconstructive manner.
- degrees of frost — When someone says that there are a particular number of degrees of frost they mean that the temperature is that number of degrees below freezing point.
- dehydroascorbate — (organic compound) Any salt or ester of dehydroascorbic acid.
- delta conversion — delta reduction
- demilitarisation — The removal of a military force, usually at the end of hostilities or as part of a treaty.
- demineralisation — Alternative spelling of demineralization.
- demonstrableness — The quality of being demonstrable.
- department store — A department store is a large shop which sells many different kinds of goods.
- depolymerisation — (chemistry) alternative spelling of depolymerization.
- depressurization — to remove the air pressure from (a pressurized compartment of an aircraft or spacecraft).
- destroyer escort — a lightly armed warship smaller than a destroyer, designed to escort fleets or convoys
- destroying angel — a white slender very poisonous basidiomycetous toadstool, Amanita virosa, having a pronounced volva, frilled, shaggy stalk, and sickly smell
- devonshire split — a kind of yeast bun split open and served with whipped cream or butter and jam
- dew-point spread — the degrees of difference between the air temperature and the dew point
- diamond district — the part of a town where diamond merchants and jewellers have their businesses
- diastereoisomers — Plural form of diastereoisomer.
- dinosaurs mating — (humour) The activity said to occur when yet another big iron merger or buy-out occurs; reflects a perception by hackers that these signal another stage in the long, slow dying of the mainframe industry. Also described as "elephants mating": lots of noise and action at a high level, with an eventual outcome in the somewhat distant future. In its glory days of the 1960s, it was "IBM and the Seven Dwarves": Burroughs, Control Data, General Electric, Honeywell, NCR, RCA, and Univac. Early on, RCA sold out to Univac and GE also sold out, and it was "IBM and the BUNCH" (an acronym for Burroughs, Univac, NCR, Control Data, and Honeywell) for a while. Honeywell was bought out by Bull. Univac in turn merged with Sperry to form Sperry/Univac, which was later merged (although the employees of Sperry called it a hostile takeover) with Burroughs to form Unisys in 1986 (this was when the phrase "dinosaurs mating" was coined). In 1991 AT&T absorbed NCR, only to spit it out again in 1996. Unisys bought Convergent Technologies in 1988 and later others. More such earth-shaking unions of doomed giants seem inevitable.
- diphosphorylated — (biochemistry) phosphorylated with two units of phosphoric acid.
- diplomatic corps — the entire body of diplomats accredited to and resident at a court or capital.