19-letter words containing o, c, t, n, a, r
- contract programmer — (job, programming) A programmer who works on a fixed-length or temporary contract, and is often employed to write certain types of code or to work on a specific project. Despite the fact that contractors usually cost more than hiring a permanent employee with the same skills, it is common for organisations to employ them for extended periods, sometimes renewing their contracts for many years, due to lack of certainty about the future or simple lack of planning. A contract programmer may be independent or they may work in a supplier's professional services department, providing consultancy and programming services for the supplier's products.
- contractile vacuole — a membrane-enveloped cellular organelle, found in many microorganisms, that periodically expands, filling with water, and then contracts, expelling its contents to the cell exterior: thought to be important in maintaining hydrostatic equilibrium.
- contradistinctively — In contradistinction.
- contradistinguished — Simple past tense and past participle of contradistinguish.
- contradistinguishes — Third-person singular simple present indicative form of contradistinguish.
- contributing factor — something that is partly responsible for a development or phenomenon
- conventional memory — (storage) The first 640 kilobytes of an IBM PC's memory. Prior to EMS, XMS, and HMA, real mode application could use only this part of the memory.
- convergent boundary — a major geologic discontinuity or suture marking the juncture of lithospheric plates that have been joined by plate tectonics.
- conversational lisp — (language) (CLISP) A mixed English-like, ALGOL-like surface syntax for Interlisp.
- cooccurrence matrix — (mathematics) Given a position operator P(i,j), let A be a nxn matrix whose element A[i][j] is the number of times that points with grey level (intensity) g[i] occur, in the position specified by P, relative to points with grey level g[j]. Let C be the nxn matrix that is produced by dividing A with the total number of point pairs that satisfy P. C[i][j] is a measure of the joint probability that a pair of points satisfying P will have values g[i], g[j]. C is called a cooccurrence matrix defined by P. Examples for the operator P are: "i above j", "i one position to the right and two below j", etc.
- coordinate geometry — analytic geometry.
- coordination number — the number of coordinated species surrounding the central atom in a complex or crystal
- cordillera oriental — the eastern ranges of the Andes, in Bolivia, Colombia, and Peru.
- coronary thrombosis — A coronary thrombosis is the same as a coronary.
- corporal punishment — Corporal punishment is the punishment of people by hitting them.
- corporate venturing — the provision of venture capital by one company for another in order to obtain information about the company requiring capital or as a step towards acquiring it
- counter reformation — the movement within the Roman Catholic Church that followed the Protestant Reformation of the 16th century.
- counter-advertising — the act or practice of calling public attention to one's product, service, need, etc., especially by paid announcements in newspapers and magazines, over radio or television, on billboards, etc.: to get more customers by advertising.
- counter-programming — to schedule (a broadcast on radio or television) to compete with one on another station.
- counter-reformation — the reform movement of the Roman Catholic Church in the 16th and early 17th centuries considered as a reaction to the Protestant Reformation
- counterdemonstrator — Someone who demonstrates in opposition to another demonstration that is happening nearby at the same time.
- countersurveillance — The art of evading surveillance.
- countertransference — in psychotherapy, transference in which the psychoanalyst or other psychotherapist substitutes the client for the original object of his or her own repressed impulses
- countervailing duty — an extra import duty imposed by a country on certain imports, esp to prevent dumping or to counteract subsidies in the exporting country
- country and western — Country and western is the same as country music.
- country-and-western — country music.
- craters of the moon — a national monument in S Idaho: site of scenic lava-flow formations.
- creative accounting — Creative accounting is when companies present or organize their accounts in such a way that they gain money for themselves or give a false impression of their profits.
- cross-fertilization — fertilization by the fusion of male and female gametes from different individuals of the same species
- cult of personality — a cult promoting adulation of a living national leader or public figure, as one encouraged by Stalin to extend his power.
- cultural revolution — (in China) a mass movement (1965–68), in which the youthful Red Guard played a prominent part. It was initiated by Mao Tse-tung to destroy the power of the bureaucrats and to revolutionize the attitudes and behaviour of the people
- current transformer — A current transformer is a transformer that is designed to give an accurate current ratio for the purpose of measurement and control.
- customs declaration — a form declaring the nature and value of goods, etc, for customs purposes
- customs regulations — the regulations relating to customs in a particular country
- data encryption key — (DEK) Used for the encryption of message text and for the computation of message integrity checks (signatures). See cryptography.
- data protection act — (legal) (DPA) A UK law guaranteeing rights to individuals in relation to personal data that others hold on them. For example, under the DPA, you have the right to see what data a company holds on you.
- de-compartmentalize — to divide into categories or compartments.
- declaration of love — a statement made by one person to another in which they say they are in love with the other person
- deflate compression — deflate
- dental receptionist — a receptionist working in a dental surgery
- diamond ring effect — a phenomenon, sometimes observed immediately before and after a total eclipse of the sun, in which one of Baily's beads is much brighter than the others, resembling a diamond ring around the moon.
- dictionary of names — a dictionary of given names that indicates whether a name is usually male, female, or unisex and often includes origins as well as meanings; for example, as by indicating that Evangeline, meaning “good news,” comes from Greek. Used primarily as an aid in selecting a name for a baby, dictionaries of names may also include lists of famous people who have shared a name and information about its current popularity ranking.
- dielectric constant — Electricity. the ratio of the flux density produced by an electric field in a given dielectric to the flux density produced by that field in a vacuum.
- difference equation — (mathematics) A relation between consecutive elements of a sequence. The first difference is D u(n) = u(n+1) - u(n) where u(n) is the nth element of sequence u. The second difference is u(n+2) + a u(n+1) + b u(n) = 0 can be converted to a difference equation (in this case, a second order linear difference equation): D2 u(n) + p D u(n) + q u(n) = 0 and vice versa. a, b, p, q are constants.
- diffraction grating — a band of equidistant, parallel lines, usually more than 5000 per inch (2000 per centimeter), ruled on a glass or polished metal surface for diffracting light to produce optical spectra.
- diffraction pattern — the phenomenon exhibited by wave fronts that, passing the edge of an opaque body, are modulated, thereby causing a redistribution of energy within the front: it is detectable in light waves by the presence of a pattern of closely spaced dark and light bands (diffraction pattern) at the edge of a shadow.
- digital electronics — (electronics) The implementation of two-valued logic using electronic logic gates such as and gates, or gates and flip-flops. In such circuits the logical values true and false are represented by two different voltages, e.g. 0V for false and +5V for true. Similarly, numbers are normally represented in binary using two different voltages to represented zero and one. Digital electronics contrasts with analogue electronics which represents continuously varying quantities like sound pressure using continuously varying voltages. Digital electronics is the foundation of modern computers and digital communications. Massively complex digital logic circuits with millions of gates can now be built onto a single integrated circuit such as a microprocessor and these circuits can perform millions of operations per second.
- direct grant school — (in Britain, formerly) a school financed by endowment, fees, and a state grant conditional upon admittance of a percentage of nonpaying pupils nominated by the local education authority
- direction indicator — aerial used in wireless communication
- directional coupler — (communications) (tap) A passive device used in cable systems to divide and combine radio frequency signals. A directional coupler has at least three ports: line in, line out, and the tap. The signal passes between line in and line out ports with loss referred to as the insertion loss. A small portion of the signal power applied to the line in port passes to the tap port. A signal applied to the tap port is passed to the line in port less the tap attenuation value. The tap signals are isolated from the line out port to prevent reflections. A signal applied to the line out port passes to the line in port and is isolated from the tap port. Some devices provide more than one tap output line (multi-taps).