Word origins

• diadochokinesisThe action of alternately flexing and extending a limb
• diadochusAny of the rival families who fought for control over Alexander the Great's empire after his death.
• diadromA complete course or vibration, as of a pendulum.
• diadumenosA form of Ancient Greek sculpture featuring a young man holding a knotted diadem (as the winner of a contest).
• diagraphA drawing instrument that combines a protractor and scale.
• dialetheiaA statement that is both true and false; a true contradiction.
• dialetheismThe theory that statements can be both true and false at the same time and in the same sense. The opposite of the law of noncontradiction.
• dialypetalousHaving separate or separable petals
• dialyticRelating to, or producing dissolution
• dianoeticPertaining to reason or thinking; intellectual.
• dianoiaDiscursive thought on mathematical or scientific subjects.
• diapedesisThe migration of blood cells, especially leucocytes, through the intact walls of blood vessels into the surrounding tissue.
• diaphageticRelating to or characterized by the interpretation of meaning that lies beneath or between the explicit words in a text or speech.
• diaphanometerAn instrument for measuring the transparency of a fluid, such as a Secchi disk.
• diaphanotypeA colour photograph produced by superimposing a translucent coloured positive over a strong uncoloured one.
• diaphemetricRelating to the measurement of tactile sensibility.
• diaphonyA form of harmony in which the parts proceeded by parallel motion in fourths, fifths, and octaves.
• diaphoteA supposed instrument designed for transmitting pictures by telegraph. It turned out the device was a hoax.
• diapirAn intrusion of a ductile rock into an overburden.
• diapnoicMidly increasing perspiration; mildly diaphoretic.
• diapyesissuppuration
• diascordiumA medicine made from dried herbs, especially Teucrium scordium.
• diaskeuasisThe process of reviewing or revising a text.
• diaskeuastOne who reviews or revises a text.
• diasporalPertaining to a diaspora.
• diasporeA natural hydrate of aluminium, sometimes forming stalactites.
• diastaseAny one of a group of enzymes which catalyse the breakdown of starch into maltose; mostly amylases (α-amylase and β-amylase).
• diastemaA gap or space between two adjacent teeth, especially the upper front incisors (in humans).
• diasterA double star; applied to the nucleus of a cell, when, during cell division, the loops of the nuclear network separate into two groups, preparatory to the formation of two daughter nuclei.
• diasyrmDescribing something already petty or mean in words that make it seem even more so.
• diatrymaA big-beaked prehistoric bird in the genus Gastornis, larger than the ostrich, believed to have become extinct 15- to 25-million years ago due to a vast climate change.
• diatyposisA testament.
• diaulosAn Ancient Greek wind instrument composed of two pipes connected at the base and often of different lengths, played similarly to an oboe.
• diazeucticDisjoining two fourths.
• diazomaA corridor that divided sections of an Ancient Greek theatre.
• dicastA kind of juror.
• dicasteryA ministry or department of the Roman Curia of the Holy See, whether administrative or ecclesiastical.
• dicho-Used with words of Greek origin.
• dichogamyThe condition in which an organism changes sex during its lifetime.
• dichotomizeTo separate into two parts, to classify into two classes, or to categorize into two categories.
• dichromacyThe quality of having two independent channels for conveying color information in the eye.
• dichromatichaving two colors.
• dichromicfurnishing or giving two colours; said of defective vision, in which all the compound colours are resolvable into two elements instead of three
• dicolonA verse or period consisting of two cola or members.
• dicrotismThe condition of each beat of the pulse consisting of two sphygmographic waves.
• dictyo-net
• dictyogenA plant with net-veined leaves and monocotyledonous embryos, belonging to the class Dictyogenae, proposed by Lindley for the families Dioscoreaceae, Smilacaceae, Trilliaceae, etc.
• dictyonalPertaining to a rigid framework of fused sponge spicules.
• dictyoniteA reticulated form of migmatite
• dicynodontA member of the infraorder Dicynodontia of dominant herbivores of the Late Permian, the most successful group of non-mammalian synapsids.
• didactA didactic person.
• didascalyAny catalog of Greek drama published by Alexandrian scholars.
• didelphidA member of Didelphidae; opossum
• didelphousSynonym of didelphic.
• didymalgiaPain in the testes.
• didymiumA mixture of praseodymium and neodymium once thought to be an element (symbol Di).
• didymosThe small binary Near-Earth asteroid (65803) Didymos. Its tiny moon is Dimorphos
• didymousTwin, twinned; growing or occurring in pairs.
• diegesisA narration or recitation.
• diegeticOf or relating to diegesis; existing within a fictional universe (rather than as background), and able to be perceived by the characters.
• diekplousAn ancient Greek naval operation in which a line of ships rowed through gaps between the enemy's ships and then turned to attack their weaker side.
• diergismThe existence, in a single species, of two distinct ways of a structure or organ functioning.
• diesisAny of several intervals, smaller than a tone, in ancient Greek music.
• diezeugmenonThe last tetrachord, in the case where two tetrachords were placed separately from each other, but with only the interval of a tone between them.
• diglotA bilingual inscription, book, or person.
• diglottismbilingualism
• digoneuticHaving two broods per season.
• digraphiaThe concurrent use of two scripts for the same spoken language.
• DikêThe goddess personifying the principle of justice.
• dikirionA liturgical candlestick holding two candles, used in the Eastern Orthodox and Eastern Catholic Churches.
• dilogicalambiguous; having double meaning
• dimerousIn two parts; having two parts in each whorl of a flower.
• dimicticHaving two thermal overturns per year.
• dinergateA large leaf-cutter ant; a major.
• dinericOf a liquid: eddying or whirling.
• dineticalRevolving on an axis.
• dinicRelating to vertigo or dizziness.
• dino-Used for presumably fearfully large or dangerous animals or animal parts.
• dinocerasSynonym of uintathere.
• dinopidAny member of the family Deinopidae of net-casting spiders.
• DioclesA male given name of historical usage.
• dioecyThe condition of being dioecious, namely having separate sexes, especially of plants.
• diokophobiaThe irrational fear of being chased, regardless of the pursuer or the potential danger.
• diorismlogical distinction; definition
• diorthoticcorrective.
• diphy-double, twofold
• diphycercalDescribing a symmetric tailfin in which the vertebral column extends to the tip.
• diphygenicHaving two modes of embryonic development.
• diphyllousHaving two leaves.
• diphyodontHaving two successive sets of teeth (deciduous and permanent), one succeeding the other.
• diphyodontyThe condition, in some animals, of having only one set of replacement teeth following a first erupted set.
• diphyozooidOne of the free-swimming sexual zooids of Siphonophorae.
• dipleA mark > once used in margins to draw attention to an important passage in a text.
• diplo-double
• diploeThe thin layer of soft, spongy, or cancellate tissue between the bone plates which constitute the skull.
• diploëThe thin layer of soft, spongy or cancellate tissue between the bone plates which constitute the skull.
• diploidionA part of the peplos whipped over the shoulders.
• dipodyA unit of two metrical feet.
• diprosopusA condition in which part of the face is duplicated on the head.
• dipsesisAbnormal or excessive thirst; hyperdipsia.