0%

21-letter words containing c, a, b, o, t

  • file allocation table — (file system)   (FAT) The component of an MS-DOS or Windows 95 file system which describes the files, directories, and free space on a hard disk or floppy disk. A disk is divided into partitions. Under the FAT file system each partition is divided into clusters, each of which can be one or more sectors, depending on the size of the partition. Each cluster is either allocated to a file or directory or it is free (unused). A directory lists the name, size, modification time and starting cluster of each file or subdirectory it contains. At the start of the partition is a table (the FAT) with one entry for each cluster. Each entry gives the number of the next cluster in the same file or a special value for "not allocated" or a special value for "this is the last cluster in the chain". The first few clusters after the FAT contain the root directory. The FAT file system was originally created for the CP/M[?] operating system where files were catalogued using 8-bit addressing. MS DOS's FAT allows only 8.3 filenames. With the introduction of MS-DOS 4 an incompatible 16-bit FAT (FAT16) with 32-kilobyte clusters was introduced that allowed partitions of up to 2 gigabytes. Microsoft later created FAT32 to support partitions larger than two gigabytes and pathnames greater that 256 characters. It also allows more efficient use of disk space since clusters are four kilobytes rather than 32 kilobytes. FAT32 was first available in OEM Service Release 2 of Windows 95 in 1996. It is not fully backward compatible with the 16-bit and 8-bit FATs. Compare: NTFS.
  • forward compatibility — (jargon)   The ability to accept input from later versions of itself. Forward compatibility is harder to achieve than backward compatibility, since, in the backward case, the input format is know whereas a forward compatible system needs to cope gracefully with unknown future features. An example of future compatibility is the stipulation that a web browser should ignore HTML tags it does not recognise. See also extensible.
  • franco-belgian system — French system.
  • garbageabetical order — (humour)   1. The result of using an insertion sort to merge data into an unsorted list. 2. The state of any file or list that is supposed to be sorted, but is not.
  • get one's breath back — When you get your breath back after doing something energetic, you start breathing normally again.
  • goldbach's conjecture — the conjecture that every even number greater than two is the sum of two prime numbers
  • greenwich observatory — the national astronomical observatory of Great Britain, housed in a castle in E Sussex; formerly located at Greenwich.
  • harriet beecher stowe — Harriet (Elizabeth) Beecher, 1811–96, U.S. abolitionist and novelist.
  • hubble classification — a method of classifying galaxies depending on whether they are elliptical, spiral, barred spiral, or irregular
  • imprecise probability — (probability)   A probability that is represented as an interval (as opposed to a single number) included in [0,1].
  • in bad/good/etc taste — If you say that something that is said or done is in bad taste or in poor taste, you mean that it is offensive, often because it concerns death or sex and is inappropriate for the situation. If you say that something is in good taste, you mean that it is not offensive and that it is appropriate for the situation.
  • integer specbaseratio — SPECbase_int92
  • johann sebastian bach — Johann Sebastian [yoh-hahn si-bas-chuh n;; German yoh-hahn zey-bahs-tee-ahn] /ˈyoʊ hɑn sɪˈbæs tʃən;; German ˈyoʊ hɑn zeɪˈbɑs tiˌɑn/ (Show IPA), 1685–1750, German organist and composer.
  • just a bunch of disks — (jargon, storage)   (JBOD, or "Just a Bunch of Drives") A storage subsystems using multiple independent disk drives, as opposed to one form of RAID or another. For example, Unisys open storage provides JBOD in both SCSI and fibre channel interfaces.
  • knights of st columba — an international, semi-secret fraternal and charitable order for Catholic laymen, which originated in New Haven, Connecticut in 1882 (the Knights of Columbus)
  • laboratory technician — sb who assists in a laboratory
  • mayor of casterbridge — a novel (1886) by Thomas Hardy.
  • megaloblastic anaemia — any anaemia, esp pernicious anaemia, characterized by the presence of megaloblasts in the blood or bone marrow
  • metabotropic receptor — an indirect receptor which initiates an intracellular biochemical cascade after it is triggered by an agonistic ligand
  • national public radio — a nationwide network of nonprofit radio stations supported in part by U.S. government funds distributed by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, often affiliated with a public television station or educational institution. Abbreviation: NPR.
  • negotiable securities — securities that are legally transferable in title from one party to another
  • not a patch on sb/sth — If you say that someone or something is not a patch on another person or thing, you mean that they are not as good as that person or thing.
  • not care a hang about — to not care the least bit about
  • objective correlative — a completely depicted situation or chain of events that objectifies a particular emotion in such a way as to produce or evoke that emotion in the reader.
  • optical double (star) — double star (sense 2)
  • portable commodore 64 — (computer)   A version of the Commodore 64 modelled after the original Osborne portable PCs, with a flip-down keyboard that revealed a 5-inch colour monitor, and a built-in 1541 floppy disk drive. It is thought that few were made but that they did go on sale, at least in Canada.
  • portable common loops — (PCL) A language which started out as an implementation of CommonLoops and turned into a portable CLOS implementation. Version 1992-08-28. It runs under Lucid Common LISP 4.0.1 and CMU Common LISP 16e.
  • potassium bicarbonate — a white, crystalline, slightly alkaline, salty-tasting, water-soluble powder, KHCO 3 , produced by the passage of carbon dioxide through an aqueous potassium carbonate solution: used in cookery as a leavening agent and in medicine as an antacid.
  • printed circuit board — a circuit in which the interconnecting conductors and some of the circuit components have been printed, etched, etc., onto a sheet or board of dielectric material (PC board, printed-circuit board)
  • public administration — the implementation of public policy, largely by the executive branch.
  • public transportation — means of fare-paying travel
  • push the panic button — an alarm button for use in an emergency, as to summon help.
  • put someone's back up — to annoy someone
  • reciprocal inhibition — the theory that the pairing of an anxiety-provoking stimulus with anxiety-reducing reactions will weaken the association between the stimulus and the anxiety.
  • rectangular hyperbola — a hyperbola with perpendicular asymptotes
  • rehabilitation centre — a centre or clinic where people with an alcohol or drug addiction are treated
  • reverberation chamber — a room with walls that reflect sound. It is used to make acoustic measurements and as a source of reverberant sound to be mixed with direct sound for recording or broadcasting
  • reverberatory furnace — See at reverberatory (def 2).
  • saponification number — the number of milligrams of potassium hydroxide required to saponify one gram of a given ester, especially a glyceride.
  • satisficing behaviour — the form of behaviour demonstrated by firms who seek satisfactory profits and satisfactory growth rather than maximum profits
  • snr bandwidth product — (communications)   The integral of the SNR over frequency. The SNR bandwidth product is an important limit in the capacity of a communication channel.
  • socialist labor party — a U.S. political party, organized in 1874, advocating the peaceful introduction of socialism.
  • space shuttle orbiter — orbiter (def 1).
  • spicebush swallowtail — a swallowtail butterfly, Papilio troilus, having a dark body with yellow spots on the forewings and greenish hind wings.
  • stabilization-process — the act or process of stabilizing or the state of being stabilized.
  • steer clear of sb/sth — If you steer clear of someone or something, you deliberately avoid them.
  • subliminal perception — perception of or reaction to a stimulus that occurs without awareness or consciousness
  • subsistence allowance — money given in advance to a new soldier, employee, etc., to buy food, clothing, and pay for other necessities while awaiting a first pay.
  • substitution instance — an expression so derived from another
  • substitution reaction — the replacement of an atom or group of atoms in a compound by another atom or group.
Was this page helpful?
Yes No
Thank you for your feedback! Tell your friends about this page
Tell us why?