18-letter words containing a, m, i, l
- collision diameter — the distance between the centers of two colliding molecules when at their closest point of approach.
- commedia dell'arte — a form of popular comedy developed in Italy during the 16th to 18th centuries, with stock characters such as Punchinello, Harlequin, and Columbine, in situations improvised from a plot outline
- commendation medal — a U.S. military decoration awarded for meritorious achievement or service
- commercial attache — an attaché in an embassy or legation representing the commercial interests of his or her country.
- commercial college — a college providing tuition in commercial skills, such as shorthand and book-keeping
- commercial vehicle — a vehicle for carrying goods or (less commonly) passengers
- committed facility — an agreement by a bank to provide a customer with funds up to a specified limit at a specified rate of interest
- communication line — a line carrying communications
- community hospital — (in the US) a local hospital
- community language — a language spoken by members of a minority group or community within a majority language context
- companion planting — the cultivation of different types of plants in close proximity so as to benefit each other, as planting a deer-repellent plant in a flower garden.
- compartmentalizing — Present participle of compartmentalize.
- compassionlessness — The quality, state, or condition of being compassionless; uncompassion.
- complementarianism — The doctrine that genders in a society should have complementary roles.
- complexity measure — (algorithm) A quantity describing the complexity of a computation.
- compliance officer — a specialist, usually a lawyer, employed by a financial group operating in a variety of fields and for multiple clients to ensure that no conflict of interest arises and that all obligations and regulations are complied with
- conceptual realism — the doctrine that universals have real and independent existence.
- considered harmful — (programming, humour) A type of phrase based on the title of Edsger W. Dijkstra's famous note in the March 1968 Communications of the ACM, "Goto Statement Considered Harmful", which fired the first salvo in the structured programming wars. Amusingly, the ACM considered the resulting acrimony sufficiently harmful that it will (by policy) no longer print articles taking so assertive a position against a coding practice. In the ensuing decades, a large number of both serious papers and parodies bore titles of the form "X considered Y". The structured-programming wars eventually blew over with the realisation that both sides were wrong, but use of such titles has remained as a persistent minor in-joke.
- container terminal — a transport terminal that handles containerized cargo
- continental margin — the offshore zone, consisting of the continental shelf, slope, and rise, that separates the dry-land portion of a continent from the deep ocean floor.
- continental system — French system.
- counterculturalism — The counterculture movement or lifestyle.
- criminal profiling — the analysis of a person's psychological and behavioural characteristics, so as to assess whether they are likely to have committed a crime under investigation
- crystal microphone — a microphone that uses a piezoelectric crystal to convert sound energy into electrical energy
- cultural pluralism — a condition in which minority groups participate fully in the dominant society, yet maintain their cultural differences.
- cumulative scoring — a method of scoring in which the score of a partnership is taken as the sum of their scores on all hands played.
- customer relations — Customer relations are the relationships that a business has with its customers and the way in which it treats them.
- daytime television — television broadcasts that are shown during the daytime rather than in the evening
- decompartmentalize — to remove excessive compartmentalization from (an organization)
- definitive plumage — the plumage of a bird that, once attained, does not change significantly in color or pattern for the rest of the bird's life.
- delmarva peninsula — a peninsula of the northeast US, between Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic
- demand liabilities — the assets of a financial institution that are demandable by depositors
- demilitarized zone — an area from which military presence or function has been removed
- dia de los muertos — Day of the Dead.
- diaminofluorescein — (organic compound) A fluorescein into which two amino groups have been substituted.
- diamondback turtle — any edible North American terrapin of the genus Malaclemys, esp M. terrapin, occurring in brackish and tidal waters and having diamond-shaped markings on the shell: family Emydidae
- dicalcium silicate — a component of cement, 2CaO⋅SiO 2 , also used to neutralize acid soils.
- dietary supplement — a substance taken in addition to what you eat in order to promote health
- digital humanities — (used with a singular verb) the study of literature, philosophy, etc., as facilitated by computer technology or digital media: Digital humanities uses data analysis to find patterns in large bodies of text. the set of methodologies used in such scholarship.
- digital multimeter — (electronics) (DMM) A peice of test equipment used for measuring voltage, current, resistance, and possibly other electircal quantities and displaying the value in number form.
- dimensionalisation — Alternative spelling of dimensionalization.
- dimensionalization — The process of dimensionalizing.
- dimethyltryptamine — a hallucinogenic drug, C 12 H 16 N 2 , with an action of short duration. Abbreviation: DMT.
- diplomatic service — diplomatic corps
- diplomatic shuttle — a series of diplomatic visits to other states made by an official, such as an ambassador or envoy
- division algorithm — the theorem that an integer can be written as the sum of the product of two integers, one a given positive integer, added to a positive integer smaller than the given positive integer. Compare Euclidean algorithm.
- domestic appliance — a machine used for household tasks, for example, a washing machine, refrigerator, etc.
- dominican republic — a republic in the West Indies, occupying the E part of the island of Hispaniola. 19,129 sq. mi. (49,545 sq. km). Capital: Santo Domingo.
- double achievement — a representation of the arms of a husband beside those of his wife such that a difference of rank between them is shown.
- dramatic monologue — a poetic form in which a single character, addressing a silent auditor at a critical moment, reveals himself or herself and the dramatic situation.