23-letter words containing c, o, i, n
- cheyne-stokes breathing — alternating shallow and deep breathing, as in comatose patients
- chi-square distribution — a continuous single-parameter distribution derived as a special case of the gamma distribution and used esp to measure goodness of fit and to test hypotheses and obtain confidence intervals for the variance of a normally distributed variable
- chief education officer — an official who is the chief administrative officer of a Local Education Authority
- chief operating officer — the executive in charge of day-to-day operations in an organization
- chlorotrifluoroethylene — a colorless, flammable gas, C 2 H 2 ClF, that polymerizes to form oils, greases, and waxes.
- chorionic gonadotrophin — a hormone secreted by the chorionic villi of the placenta in mammals, esp human chorionic gonadotrophin. It promotes the secretion of progesterone by the corpus luteum and its presence in the urine is an indication of pregnancy
- chronic wasting disease — a disease found among members of the deer family, a type of transmissible spongiform encephalopathy
- church of the subgenius — (body, humour) A mutant offshoot of Discordianism launched in 1981 as a spoof of fundamentalist Christianity by the "Reverend" Ivan Stang, a brilliant satirist with a gift for promotion. Popular among hackers as a rich source of bizarre imagery and references such as "Bob" the divine drilling-equipment salesman, the Benevolent Space Xists, and the Stark Fist of Removal. Much SubGenius theory is concerned with the acquisition of the mystical substance or quality of slack.
- city technology college — (in Britain) a type of senior secondary school specializing in technological subjects, set up in inner-city areas with funding from industry as well as the government
- civil aeronautics board — the former federal agency (1938–85) that regulated airline fares and assigned routes. Abbreviation: CAB, C.A.B.
- classification schedule — the printed scheme of a system of classification
- coefficient of friction — the force required to move two sliding surfaces over each other, divided by the force holding them together. It is reduced once the motion has started
- 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
- come into one's/its own — If someone or something comes into their own, they become very successful or start to perform very well because the circumstances are right.
- come to sb's assistance — If you come to someone's assistance, you take action to help them.
- commercial exploitation — unethical business practices
- common lisp in parallel — (language, parallel) (CLIP) A version of Common LISP from Allegro for the Sequent Symmetry.
- commonwealth of nations — a voluntary association of independent nations and dependent territories linked by historical ties (as parts of the former British Empire) and cooperating on matters of mutual concern, especially regarding economics and trade.
- 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
- community-service order — (in Britain) a court order requiring an offender over seventeen years old to do unpaid socially beneficial work under supervision instead of going to prison
- 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.
- complain about the food — If you complain about the food, you say that you are not satisfied with it.
- 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
- condition code register — a hardware register used for storing the current values of the condition codes
- 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).
- conditional probability — the probability of one event, A, occurring given that another, B, is already known to have occurred: written P(A|B) and equal to P(A and B)|P(B)
- conditioned suppression — the reduction in the frequency of a learned response, e.g. pressing a bar for water, that occurs when a stimulus previously associated with pain is present
- confessional television — television programmes, esp talk shows, in which members of the public reveal their private lives, personal problems, etc
- conformational analysis — the study of the spatial arrangement of atoms or groups of atoms in a molecule and the way in which this influences chemical behaviour
- 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.
- connection machine lisp — (language) Lisp with a parallel data structure, the 'xapping', an array of values assigned to an array of sites.
- connectionless protocol — (protocol) The data communication method in which communication occurs between hosts with no previous setup. Packets sent between two hosts may take different routes.
- conscientious objection — refusal on moral or religious grounds to serve in the armed forces or to bear arms in a military conflict.
- consciousness-expanding — mind-expanding.
- 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
- conspicuous consumption — Conspicuous consumption means spending your money in such a way that other people can see how wealthy you are.
- constant of gravitation — a law stating that any two masses attract each other with a force equal to a constant (constant of gravitation) multiplied by the product of the two masses and divided by the square of the distance between them.
- 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.
- constant velocity joint — A constant velocity joint is a universal joint in which the output shaft rotates at constant speed if the input shaft speed is constant.
- constant-velocity joint — a universal joint that is used in the drive train of front-wheel-drive cars and operates effectively even when the shafts being connected meet at a sharp angle.