23-letter words containing c, i, n, e, r, a
- client-centered therapy — a nondirective method of psychotherapy in which treatment consists of helping patients to use effectively their own latent resources in solving problems.
- collision damage waiver — a form of optional collision insurance cover for a vehicle that is being rented
- combinatorial chemistry — the use of chemical methods to generate all possible combinations of chemicals
- commercial exploitation — unethical business practices
- common lisp in parallel — (language, parallel) (CLIP) A version of Common LISP from Allegro for the Sequent Symmetry.
- communication breakdown — a lack of communication; a failure to exchange information
- communication interface — an electronic circuit, usually designed to a specific standard, that enables one machine to telecommunicate with another machine
- communications software — (communications, software) Application programs, operating system components, and probably firmware, forming part of a communication system. These different software components might be classified according to the functions within the Open Systems Interconnect model which they provide. Typical applications include a web browser, Mail User Agent, chat and telnet.
- communist international — Third International.
- communist-international — an international organization (1919–43), founded in Moscow, uniting Communist groups of various countries and advocating the attainment of their ends by violent revolution. Also called Comintern, Communist International. Compare international (def 6).
- community health centre — a medical centre that serves a particular area
- comparative advertising — a form of advertising in which a product is compared favourably with similar products on the market
- comparative linguistics — the study of the correspondences between languages that have a common origin.
- composite colour signal — a colour television signal in which luminance and two chrominance components are encoded into a single signal
- computer-aided learning — Computer-Aided Instruction
- computer-based training — Computer-Aided Instruction
- conditional convergence — the property of an infinite series that converges while the series formed by replacing each term in the given series with its absolute value diverges; the property of an infinite series that converges when the order of the terms is altered. Compare absolute convergence (def 1).
- conjunctive normal form — (logic) (CNF) A logical formula consisting of a conjunction of disjunctions of terms where no disjunction contains a conjunction. Such a formula might also be described as a product of sums. E.g. the CNF of (A and B) or C is (A or C) and (B or C). Contrast Disjunctive Normal Form.
- conservative evaluation — (programming) Under this parallel evaluation strategy, no evaluation is started unless it is known to be needed. The opposite of conservative evaluation is speculative evaluation.
- consolidated deliveries — deliveries of goods to different shops in a common location by a single carrier and in a single vehicle
- constant of integration — a constant that is added to the function obtained by evaluating the indefinite integral of a given function, indicating that all indefinite integrals of the given function differ by, at most, a constant.
- conversion to iteration — A transformation applied to functional programs to replace recursion with iteration. A tail-recursive function can be compiled to an iterative loop where the recursive call becomes a jump back to the start and the parameters are held in registers which are updated with new values each time around the loop. See Iteration, Tail recursion optimisation.
- cordillera de talamanca — a mountain range running SE from central Costa Rica to W Panama.
- corporate restructuring — a change in the business strategy of an organization resulting in diversification, closing parts of the business, etc, to increase its long-term profitability
- correlation coefficient — a statistic measuring the degree of correlation between two variables as by dividing their covariance by the square root of the product of their variances. The closer the correlation coefficient is to 1 or –1 the greater the correlation; if it is random, the coefficient is zero
- correlative conjunction — either member of a matched pair of words, of which the second is a coordinating conjunction, as either … or, neither … nor, both … and, or not only … but.
- corridor of uncertainty — an area of a wicket just outside a batsman's off stump, so located that the batsman will have difficulty in deciding whether or not to play a ball bowled into it
- cost-of-living increase — a pay rise that is given because the cost of living has gone up
- court of first instance — a court in which legal proceedings are begun or first heard
- creative writing course — a course in which people are taught creative writing skills
- credit-reference agency — an agency, other than a bank, that specializes in providing credit ratings of people or organizations
- criminal justice system — the combination of courts and legal processes that deal with crime
- criminal records bureau — (in England and Wales) a service offering employers and voluntary organizations access to police, health, and education records
- critique of pure reason — a philosophical work (1781) by Immanuel Kant.
- cryptococcal meningitis — a form of meningitis resulting from opportunistic infection by a cryptococcus fungus, occurring in persons who are immunodeficient.
- current-cost accounting — a method of accounting that values assets at their current replacement cost rather than their original cost
- cyclic redundancy check — (algorithm) (CRC or "cyclic redundancy code") A number derived from, and stored or transmitted with, a block of data in order to detect corruption. By recalculating the CRC and comparing it to the value originally transmitted, the receiver can detect some types of transmission errors. A CRC is more complicated than a checksum. It is calculated using division either using shifts and exclusive ORs or table lookup (modulo 256 or 65536). The CRC is "redundant" in that it adds no information. A single corrupted bit in the data will result in a one bit change in the calculated CRC but multiple corrupted bits may cancel each other out. CRCs treat blocks of input bits as coefficient-sets for polynomials. E.g., binary 10100000 implies the polynomial: 1*x^7 + 0*x^6 + 1*x^5 + 0*x^4 + 0*x^3 + 0*x^2 + 0*x^1 + 0*x^0. This is the "message polynomial". A second polynomial, with constant coefficients, is called the "generator polynomial". This is divided into the message polynomial, giving a quotient and remainder. The coefficients of the remainder form the bits of the final CRC. So, an order-33 generator polynomial is necessary to generate a 32-bit CRC. The exact bit-set used for the generator polynomial will naturally affect the CRC that is computed. Most CRC implementations seem to operate 8 bits at a time by building a table of 256 entries, representing all 256 possible 8-bit byte combinations, and determining the effect that each byte will have. CRCs are then computed using an input byte to select a 16- or 32-bit value from the table. This value is then used to update the CRC.
- cylinder vacuum cleaner — a type of vacuum cleaner in which dirt, dust, etc, is sucked into a hard cylinder rather than a bag
- cylindrical coordinates — three coordinates defining the location of a point in three-dimensional space in terms of its polar coordinates (r, θ) in one plane, usually the (x, y) plane, and its perpendicular distance, z, measured from this plane
- d'entrecasteaux islands — a group of volcanic islands in the Pacific, off the SE coast of New Guinea: part of Papua New Guinea. Pop: 49 167 (1990 est). Area: 3141 sq km (1213 sq miles)
- dacryocystorhinostomies — Plural form of dacryocystorhinostomy.
- de-compartmentalization — to divide into categories or compartments.
- delayed stress reaction — a post-traumatic stress disorder occurring more than six months after the experience of a traumatic event.
- department of education — the department of the U.S. federal government that administers federal programs dealing with education: created in 1979, largely by transfer from part of the former Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. Abbreviation: ED.
- deterministic automaton — (theory) A finite-state automaton in which the overall course of the computation is completely determined by the program, the starting state, and the initial inputs. The class of problems solvable by such automata is the class P (see polynomial-time algorithm).
- diamondback rattlesnake — either of two large, highly venomous rattlesnakes of the genus Crotalus, having diamond-shaped markings on the back.
- dichlorodifluoromethane — a colourless nonflammable gas easily liquefied by pressure: used as a propellant in aerosols and fire extinguishers and as a refrigerant. Formula: CCl2F2
- differential compaction — differences in the extent to which sediment is compacted owing to topographic irregularities of the surface on which it is deposited.
- differential psychology — the branch of psychology dealing with the study of characteristic differences or variations of groups or individuals, especially through the use of analytic techniques and statistical methods.
- digital subscriber line — (communications, protocol) (DSL, or Digital Subscriber Loop, xDSL - see below) A family of digital telecommunications protocols designed to allow high speed data communication over the existing copper telephone lines between end-users and telephone companies. When two conventional modems are connected through the telephone system (PSTN), it treats the communication the same as voice conversations. This has the advantage that there is no investment required from the telephone company (telco) but the disadvantage is that the bandwidth available for the communication is the same as that available for voice conversations, usually 64 kb/s (DS0) at most. The twisted-pair copper cables into individual homes or offices can usually carry significantly more than 64 kb/s but the telco needs to handle the signal as digital rather than analog. There are many implementation of the basic scheme, differing in the communication protocol used and providing varying service levels. The throughput of the communication can be anything from about 128 kb/s to over 8 Mb/s, the communication can be either symmetric or asymmetric (i.e. the available bandwidth may or may not be the same upstream and downstream). Equipment prices and service fees also vary considerably. The first technology based on DSL was ISDN, although ISDN is not often recognised as such nowadays. Since then a large number of other protocols have been developed, collectively referred to as xDSL, including HDSL, SDSL, ADSL, and VDSL. As yet none of these have reached very wide deployment but wider deployment is expected for 1998-1999.