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15-letter words containing h, s, t, r

  • christmas party — a party organized before Christmas, usually by a firm or organization
  • chromatic scale — a twelve-note scale including all the semitones of the octave
  • chronobiologist — A person who is involved in chronobiology.
  • chryse planitia — a plain on Mars, the landing site of the Viking I spacecraft.
  • church register — parish register.
  • citrus whitefly — See under whitefly.
  • claustrophobics — Plural form of claustrophobic.
  • clear the decks — to prepare for action, as by removing obstacles from a field of activity or combat
  • cocktail shaker — a container in which cocktails are mixed
  • comptrollership — controller (def 1).
  • computer ethics — (philosophy)   Ethics is the field of study that is concerned with questions of value, that is, judgments about what human behaviour is "good" or "bad". Ethical judgments are no different in the area of computing from those in any other area. Computers raise problems of privacy, ownership, theft, and power, to name but a few. Computer ethics can be grounded in one of four basic world-views: Idealism, Realism, Pragmatism, or Existentialism. Idealists believe that reality is basically ideas and that ethics therefore involves conforming to ideals. Realists believe that reality is basically nature and that ethics therefore involves acting according to what is natural. Pragmatists believe that reality is not fixed but is in process and that ethics therefore is practical (that is, concerned with what will produce socially-desired results). Existentialists believe reality is self-defined and that ethics therefore is individual (that is, concerned only with one's own conscience). Idealism and Realism can be considered ABSOLUTIST worldviews because they are based on something fixed (that is, ideas or nature, respectively). Pragmatism and Existentialism can be considered RELATIVIST worldviews because they are based or something relational (that is, society or the individual, respectively). Thus ethical judgments will vary, depending on the judge's world-view. Some examples: First consider theft. Suppose a university's computer is used for sending an e-mail message to a friend or for conducting a full-blown private business (billing, payroll, inventory, etc.). The absolutist would say that both activities are unethical (while recognising a difference in the amount of wrong being done). A relativist might say that the latter activities were wrong because they tied up too much memory and slowed down the machine, but the e-mail message wasn't wrong because it had no significant effect on operations. Next consider privacy. An instructor uses her account to acquire the cumulative grade point average of a student who is in a class which she instructs. She obtained the password for this restricted information from someone in the Records Office who erroneously thought that she was the student's advisor. The absolutist would probably say that the instructor acted wrongly, since the only person who is entitled to this information is the student and his or her advisor. The relativist would probably ask why the instructor wanted the information. If she replied that she wanted it to be sure that her grading of the student was consistent with the student's overall academic performance record, the relativist might agree that such use was acceptable. Finally, consider power. At a particular university, if a professor wants a computer account, all she or he need do is request one but a student must obtain faculty sponsorship in order to receive an account. An absolutist (because of a proclivity for hierarchical thinking) might not have a problem with this divergence in procedure. A relativist, on the other hand, might question what makes the two situations essentially different (e.g. are faculty assumed to have more need for computers than students? Are students more likely to cause problems than faculty? Is this a hold-over from the days of "in loco parentis"?).
  • conservatorship — the legal status of a person appointed by a court to protect the interests of someone, such as a child, who is unable to manage his or her own affairs
  • copper sulphate — a copper salt found naturally as chalcanthite and made by the action of sulphuric acid on copper oxide. It usually exists as blue crystals of the pentahydrate that form a white anhydrous powder when heated: used as a mordant, in electroplating, and in plant sprays. Formula: CuSO4
  • costochondritis — (medicine) A benign inflammation of the costal cartilage, causing pain between the ribs.
  • countercathexis — (psychology) The suppression or repression of mental energy.
  • counterflashing — (construction) Formed metal or elastomeric sheeting secured on or into a wall, curb, pipe or other surface, to cover and protect the upper edge of a base flashing and its associated fasteners.
  • counterpurchase — barter, especially of products or materials between international companies or importers and exporters.
  • couples therapy — a counseling procedure that attempts to improve the adaptation and adjustment of two people who form a conjugal unit.
  • court christian — ecclesiastical court.
  • court of arches — the court of appeal of the Province of Canterbury, formerly held under the arches of Bow Church
  • cradle snatcher — someone who marries or has an affair with a much younger person
  • craftswomanship — The body of skills, techniques, and expertise of (a) feminine craft(s).
  • crashworthiness — the ability of a vehicle structure to withstand a crash
  • crescent wrench — a wrench with a head shaped like a crescent, having one movable jaw, adjusted by a screw to fit various sizes of nuts, bolts, etc.
  • crescent-shaped — having the shape of a crescent
  • crisis theology — a neoorthodox theology, advocated by Karl Barth and others, emphasizing the absolute necessity of faith and divine revelation in transcending the personal crisis, common to all humankind, that arises from the contradictions inherent in human nature and in the social order.
  • crown of thorns — a climbing spurge, Euphorbia milii splendens, of Madagascar, having stems covered with spines.
  • crown-of-thorns — a starfish, Acanthaster planci, that has a spiny test and feeds on living coral in coral reefs
  • crush-resistant — not being easily creased
  • cryoanaesthesia — Alternative spelling of cryoanesthesia.
  • crystal healing — (in alternative therapy) the use of the supposed power of crystals to affect the human energy field
  • crystallography — the science concerned with the formation, properties, and structure of crystals
  • culture-shocked — a state of bewilderment and distress experienced by an individual who is suddenly exposed to a new, strange, or foreign social and cultural environment.
  • curate's-eggish — good in parts
  • curtain shutter — a focal-plane shutter consisting of a curtain on two rollers, moved at a constant speed past the lens opening so as to expose the film to one of several slots in the curtain, the width of which determines the length of exposure.
  • cut the mustard — to come up to expectations
  • cytophotometers — Plural form of cytophotometer.
  • cytotrophoblast — the thickened, inner part of the mammalian placenta nearest to the fetus, covering the chorion during early pregnancy
  • dartmouth basic — (language)   The original BASIC language, designed by John G. Kemeny and Thomas E. Kurtz at Dartmouth College in 1963. Dartmouth BASIC first ran on a GE 235 [date?] and on an IBM 704 on 1964-05-01. It was designed for quick and easy programming by students and beginners using Dartmouth's experimental time-sharing system. Unlike most later BASIC dialects, Dartmouth BASIC was compiled.
  • decision theory — the study of strategies for decision-making under conditions of uncertainty in such a way as to maximize the expected utility
  • delsarte method — a theory or system devised by François Delsarte for improving musical and dramatic expression through the mastery of various bodily attitudes and gestures.
  • dendrochemistry — (chemistry) the science, related to dendrochronology, that uses the analysis of trace minerals in tree rings to study air pollution in past times.
  • dephosphorylate — to remove a phosphate group from (an organic compound)
  • dermatoglyphics — the lines forming a skin pattern, esp on the palms of the hands and soles of the feet
  • dermatographism — a condition in which touching or lightly scratching the skin causes raised, reddish marks.
  • dermatophytosis — a fungal infection of the skin, esp the feet
  • deutsches reich — former German name of Germany.
  • diaheliotropism — the tendency among plants to respond to the light of the sun by orienting their leaves perpendicular to the sun's rays, such that the upper surface of the leaves receives maximum light
  • diaphototropism — growth of a plant or plant part in a direction transverse to that of the light
  • diastrophically — in a diastrophic fashion
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