15-letter words containing s, e, r, o
- compromise rail — a rail for linking rails having different sections.
- 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"?).
- computer screen — the working area on the monitor of a computer
- computer system — a computer or a set of computers that works together
- computer vision — a robot analogue of human vision in which information about the environment is received by one or more video cameras and processed by computer: used in navigation by robots, in the control of automated production lines, etc.
- computerisation — (chiefly, British) alternative spelling of computerization.
- comrade in arms — a fellow soldier.
- comrade-in-arms — A comrade-in-arms is someone who has worked for the same cause or purpose as you and has shared the same difficulties and dangers.
- con espressione — (to be performed) with feeling; expressively
- concern oneself — to busy oneself (with, about, over, in something); take an interest
- concert pianist — a person who earns a living from giving solo performances on the piano in front of audiences
- concertmistress — the first violinist in an orchestra
- concerto grosso — a composition for an orchestra and a group of soloists, chiefly of the baroque period
- concession road — (esp in Ontario) one of a series of roads separating concessions in a township
- concessionaires — a person, group, or company to whom a concession has been granted, especially to operate a subsidiary business or service: a popcorn concessionaire at a baseball park.
- concrete syntax — (language, data) The syntax of a language including all the features visible in the source code such as parentheses and delimiters. The concrete syntax is used when parsing the program or other input, during which it is usually converted into some kind of abstract syntax tree (conforming to an abstract syntax). In communications, concrete syntax is called transfer syntax.
- concurrent lisp — (language) A concurrent version of Lisp. Sugimoto et al implemented an interpreter on a "large scale computer" and were planning to implement it on multiple microprocessors.
- concurrent user — one of several simultaneous users of a computing resource such as a computer program or file
- confectionaries — a candy; sweetmeat.
- confectioneries — Plural form of confectionery.
- conformableness — The state or quality of being conformable.
- confraternities — Plural form of confraternity.
- conglomerations — Plural form of conglomeration.
- congress-people — congressmember.
- congressionally — of or relating to a congress.
- connoisseurship — a person who is especially competent to pass critical judgments in an art, particularly one of the fine arts, or in matters of taste: a connoisseur of modern art.
- consecratedness — the state of being consecrated
- conservationism — A movement that supports conservation, especially that of natural resources.
- conservationist — A conservationist is someone who cares greatly about the conservation of the environment and who works to protect it.
- 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
- considerateness — showing kindly awareness or regard for another's feelings, circumstances, etc.: a very considerate critic.
- consideratively — in a considerative manner
- construct state — (in Semitic languages) the inflected form of a noun dependent on a following noun, with the combination expressing a genitive relationship, as Hebrew beth David “house of David,” where beth “house of” is the construct form of bayit “house.”.
- consumer choice — the range of competing products and services from which a consumer can choose
- consumer credit — Consumer credit is money that is lent to people by organizations such as banks, building societies, and shops so that they can buy things.
- consumer demand — a measure of consumers' desire for a product or service based on its availability
- consumer market — the market of consumers for a particular good or service
- consumer strike — a boycott of a product by consumers, often in protest over a raise in its price.
- contact address — an address where a person can be contacted
- contact process — a catalytic method for producing sulfuric acid from sulfur dioxide and oxygen.
- container class — (programming) A class whose instances are collections of other objects. Examples include arrays, lists, queues and stacks. A container class typically provides methods such as count, insert, delete and search.
- contemporaneous — If two events or situations are contemporaneous, they happen or exist during the same period of time.
- contraclockwise — Counterclockwise.
- contrapositives — (logic) Plural form of contrapositive.
- contrariousness — The state or quality of being contrarious.
- contrast medium — a radiopaque substance, such as barium sulphate, used to increase the contrast of an image in radiography
- control surface — a movable surface, such as a rudder, elevator, aileron, etc, that controls an aircraft or rocket
- controller bias — In a control loop, the controller bias is a constant amount added to or subtracted from the action that a controller would normally take with a particular gain.
- controversially — of, relating to, or characteristic of controversy, or prolonged public dispute, debate, or contention; polemical: a controversial book.