17-letter words containing p
- digital audiotape — a cassette containing magnetic tape used for high-fidelity digital recording or playback of audio. Abbreviation: DAT.
- digital footprint — one's unique set of digital activities, actions, and communications that leave a data trace on the Internet or on a computer or other digital device and can identify the particular user or device: Our online browsing habits are part of our passive digital footprint, created without our consent or knowledge, but our active digital footprint, especially on social media, can more easily be managed. Compare footprint (def 4).
- dihydromorphinone — a narcotic compound, C 17 H 19 O 3 N, prepared from morphine and used chiefly as an analgesic.
- diphenylacetylene — tolan.
- diphenylhydantoin — a white, slightly water-soluble powder, C 15 H 11 N 2 O 2 , used in the form of its sodium salt to prevent or arrest convulsions in epilepsy.
- dipped headlights — road vehicle headlights which have been switched from the main to the lower beam
- dipterocarpaceous — of, relating to, or belonging to the Dipterocarpaceae, a family of trees chiefly native to tropical SE Asia, having two-winged fruits. Many species yield useful timber and resins
- disaster planning — disaster recovery
- discrete preorder — (mathematics) A preorder is said to be discrete if any two of its elements are incomparable.
- disorderly person — a person guilty of disorderly conduct.
- dispassionateness — The state or quality of being dispassionate.
- dispensationalism — the interpreting of history as a series of divine dispensations.
- dispersive medium — a substance in which waves of different frequencies travel at different speeds
- displacement hull — a hull that displaces a significant volume of water when under way.
- display standards — display standard
- disposable income — the part of a person's income remaining after deducting personal income taxes.
- disproportionally — not in proportion; disproportionate.
- disproportionates — Third-person singular simple present indicative form of disproportionate.
- disrespectability — Lack of respectability.
- disrespectfulness — The state or quality of being disrespectful; disrespect; disregard.
- disruptive action — action performed by protestors, workers, etc that causes the disruption of a service
- dissipation trail — a clear rift left behind an aircraft flying through a thin cloud layer.
- dissociated press — [Play on "Associated Press"; perhaps inspired by a reference in the 1949 Bugs Bunny cartoon "What's Up, Doc?"] An algorithm for transforming any text into potentially humorous garbage even more efficiently than by passing it through a marketroid. The algorithm starts by printing any N consecutive words (or letters) in the text. Then at every step it searches for any random occurrence in the original text of the last N words (or letters) already printed and then prints the next word or letter. Emacs has a handy command for this. Here is a short example of word-based Dissociated Press applied to an earlier version of the Jargon File: wart: A small, crocky feature that sticks out of an array (C has no checks for this). This is relatively benign and easy to spot if the phrase is bent so as to be not worth paying attention to the medium in question. Here is a short example of letter-based Dissociated Press applied to the same source: window sysIWYG: A bit was named aften /bee't*/ prefer to use the other guy's re, especially in every cast a chuckle on neithout getting into useful informash speech makes removing a featuring a move or usage actual abstractionsidered interj. Indeed spectace logic or problem! A hackish idle pastime is to apply letter-based Dissociated Press to a random body of text and vgrep the output in hopes of finding an interesting new word. (In the preceding example, "window sysIWYG" and "informash" show some promise.) Iterated applications of Dissociated Press usually yield better results. Similar techniques called "travesty generators" have been employed with considerable satirical effect to the utterances of Usenet flamers; see pseudo.
- dna amplification — an increase in the frequency of replication of a DNA segment.
- doberman pinscher — one of a German breed of medium-sized, short-haired dogs having a black, brown, or blue coat with rusty brown markings.
- dog and pony show — an elaborate sales, advertising, or publicity presentation or campaign.
- doorstep salesman — a door-to-door salesman
- double pair royal — a set of four cards of the same denomination, worth 12 points.
- down in the dumps — If you are down in the dumps, you are feeling very depressed and miserable.
- down the plughole — If you say that something has gone down the plughole, you mean that it has failed or has been lost or wasted.
- dramatis personae — (used with a plural verb) the characters in a play.
- dressed up as sth — portrayed as
- drilling platform — a structure, either fixed to the sea bed or mobile, which supports the machinery and equipment (the drilling rig), together with the stores, required for digging an offshore oil well
- drive up the wall — to cause to become crazy or furious
- drool-proof paper — (jargon) Documentation that has been obsessively dumbed down, to the point where only a cretin could bear to read it, is said to have succumbed to the "drool-proof paper syndrome" or to have been "written on drool-proof paper". For example, this is an actual quote from Apple Computer's LaserWriter manual: "Do not expose your LaserWriter to open fire or flame."
- drop on the floor — To react to an error condition by silently discarding messages or other valuable data. "The gateway ran out of memory, so it just started dropping packets on the floor." Also frequently used of faulty mail and netnews relay sites that lose messages. See also black hole, bit bucket.
- drop one's bundle — several objects or a quantity of material gathered or bound together: a bundle of hay.
- droplet infection — infection spread by airborne droplets of secretions from the nose, throat, or lungs.
- duality principle — the principle that a mathematical duality exists under certain conditions.
- dynamically typed — dynamic typing
- east grand rapids — a town in W central Michigan, near Grand Rapids.
- east pacific rise — a long north-south elevation of the sea floor in the E Pacific Ocean extending southward from SW Mexico to the Antarctic Ocean.
- eastern townships — an area of central Canada, in S Quebec: consists of 11 townships south of the St Lawrence
- echocardiographer — A person who performs echocardiography.
- echocardiographic — Of or pertaining to echocardiography.
- echoencephalogram — a graphic record produced by an echoencephalograph.
- ectoparasiticides — Plural form of ectoparasiticide.
- ectopic pregnancy — the development of a fertilized ovum outside the uterus, as in a Fallopian tube.
- efficiency expert — a person who studies the methods, procedures, and job characteristics of a business or factory with the object of devising ways to increase the efficiency of equipment and personnel.
- egyptian brackets — (programming, humour) A humourous term for K&R indent style, referring to the "one hand up in front, one down behind" pose which popular culture inexplicably associates with Egypt.