16-letter words starting with ca
- case sensitivity — (text) Whether a text matching operation distinguishes upper-case (capital) letters from lower case (is "case sensitive") or not ("case insensitive"). Case in file names should be preserved (for readability) but ignored when matching (so the user doesn't have to get it right). MS-DOS does not preserve case in file names, Unix preserves case and matches are case sensitive. Any decent text editor will allow the user to specify whether or not text searches should be case sensitive. Case sensitivity is also relevant in programming (most programming languages distiguish between case in the names of identifiers), and addressing (Internet domain names are case insensitive but RFC 822 local mailbox names are case sensitive). Case insensitive operations are sometimes said to "fold case", from the idea of folding the character code table so that upper and lower case letters coincide. The alternative "smash case" is more likely to be used by someone who considers this behaviour a misfeature or in cases where one case is actually permanently converted to the other. "MS-DOS will automatically smash case in the names of all the files you create".
- cash on delivery — If you pay for goods cash on delivery, you pay for them in cash when they are delivered. The abbreviation C.O.D. is also used.
- cash transaction — a piece of business, for example an act of buying or selling something
- cashless society — a society in which purchases of goods or services are made by credit card or electronic funds transferral rather than with cash or checks.
- cassia-bark tree — a lauraceous tree, Cinnamomum cassia, of eastern Asia.
- cassini division — the gap or dark region between the two main outer rings of Saturn: it has a width of about 4,700 km (2,920 mi)
- cassius longinus — Gaius (ˈɡaɪəs). died 42 bc, Roman general: led the conspiracy against Julius Caesar (44); defeated at Philippi by Antony (42)
- castellated beam — a rolled metal beam the web of which is first divided by a lengthwise zigzag cut, then welded together so as to join the peaks of both halves, thus increasing its depth and strength.
- casting director — the person in charge of choosing of actors for a production
- castor-oil plant — a tall euphorbiaceous Indian plant, Ricinus communis, cultivated in tropical regions for ornament and for its poisonous seeds, from which castor oil is extracted
- catachrestically — In a catachrestic way.
- cataractogenesis — The formation of a cataract.
- catastrophically — of the nature of a catastrophe, or disastrous event; calamitous: a catastrophic failure of the dam.
- catch a few zeds — to have a nap
- catch oneself on — to realize that one's actions are mistaken
- catch red-handed — If someone is caught red-handed, they are caught while they are in the act of doing something wrong.
- catch sb napping — If someone is caught napping, something happens when they are not prepared for it, although they should have been.
- catchwater drain — a channel cut along the edge of high ground to catch surface water from it and divert it away from low-lying ground
- category listing — A category listing is a list of different product categories such as menswear, womenswear, and childrenswear.
- category mistake — a sentence that says of something in one category what can only intelligibly be said of something in another, as when speaking of the mind located in space
- category planner — A category planner is a person whose job to plan and co-ordinate future inventory and sales volume in one or more product categories.
- catering college — a further education college where you learn to cook as a profession
- catering manager — the person in charge of the catering in a place or at an event
- cathedral church — the principal church in a diocese
- catherine howard — Catherine, c1520–42, fifth wife of Henry VIII.
- cathode ray tube — (hardware) (CRT) An electrical device for displaying images by exciting phosphor dots with a scanned electron beam. CRTs are found in computer VDUs and monitors, televisions and oscilloscopes. The first commercially practical CRT was perfected on 29 January 1901 by Allen B DuMont. A large glass envelope containing a negative electrode (the cathode) emits electrons (formerly called "cathode rays") when heated, as in a vacuum tube. The electrons are accelerated across a large voltage gradient toward the flat surface of the tube (the screen) which is covered with phosphor. When an electron strikes the phosphor, light is emitted. The electron beam is deflected by electromagnetic coils around the outside of the tube so that it scans across the screen, usually in horizontal stripes. This scan pattern is known as a raster. By controlling the current in the beam, the brightness at any particular point (roughly a "pixel") can be varied. Different phosphors have different "persistence" - the length of time for which they glow after being struck by electrons. If the scanning is done fast enough, the eye sees a steady image, due to both the persistence of the phospor and of the eye itself. CRTs also differ in their dot pitch, which determines their spatial resolution, and in whether they use interlace or not.
- cathode-ray tube — A cathode-ray tube is a device in televisions and computer terminals which sends an image onto the screen.
- cause and effect — You use cause and effect to talk about the way in which one thing is caused by another.
- cause-and-effect — noting a relationship between actions or events such that one or more are the result of the other or others.
- cavity resonator — a conducting surface enclosing a space in which an oscillating electromagnetic field can be maintained, the dimensions of the cavity determining the resonant frequency of the oscillations. It is used in microwave devices for frequencies exceeding 300 megahertz
- cayenne (pepper) — a very hot, reddish condiment made from various capsicums
- cayenne software — (company) The company formed when CADRE merged with Bachman Information Systems in July 1996.