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 Talk Talk - Communication terms
Category: General technical and industrial
Date & country: 28/05/2010, UK
Words: 18630


molar
One of the large teeth found towards the back of the mammalian mouth. The structure of the jaw, and the relation of the muscles, allows a massive force to be applied to molars. In herbivores the molars are flat with sharp ridges of enamel and are used for grinding, an adaptation to a diet of tough plant material. Carnivores have sharp powerful mola...

Moldova
Country in east-central Europe, bounded north, south, and east by Ukraine, and west by Romania. Government Moldova is a multiparty democracy, with executive power shared between a president and prime minister. Under its 1994 constitution, as amended in 1997 and 2000, it has a single-chamber legislature, the parliament (Parlament), comprisin...

Mohave Desert
Arid region in southern California, USA; see Mojave Desert

Montagu-Chelmsford reforms
Changes to the constitution of India in 1919, whereby Indians obtained greater control in local and some provincial matters such as health, education, and agriculture, while British administrators still controlled finance and law and order. Arguing that the reforms did not go far enough, Indian nationalists organized a concerted noncooperation camp...

Morley-Minto reforms
Measures announced in 1909 to increase the participation of Indians in their country's government. Introduced by John Morley (1838–1923), secretary of state for India, and Lord Minto (1845–1914), viceroy of India, they did not affect the responsibility of government, which remained in British hands, but did give Indians wider opportun...

Monagas, José Tadeo
Venezuelan president 1847–51 and 1855–58, a hero of the independence movement. Monagas wanted to create a separate state in eastern Venezuela called Oriente, leading an uprising against President José Antonio Páez 1831. He called it off in return for a pardon for his rebels. The Liberal Monagas clan gained power after the fall i...

Montt, Manuel
Chilean president 1851–61. He was a hardliner who promoted economic development, especially railway building, the telegraph, postal services, and gas lighting. His final years in office saw economic recession and political turmoil, including clashes between church and state. Partly self-educated, Montt became rector of the Instituto Nazion...

Morelos, José María
Mexican priest and revolutionary. A mestizo (person with Spanish American and American Indian parents), Morelos followed independence campaigner Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, intending to be an army chaplain, but he displayed military genius and came to head his own forces. The independence movement was stalled for five years after his death. He sough...

moor
Click images to enlargeIn earth science, a stretch of land, usually at a height, which is characterized by a vegetation of heather, coarse grass, and bracken. A moor may be poorly drained and contain boggy hollows

Morrissey
English rock singer and lyricist. He was a founder member of the Smiths 1982–87 and subsequently a solo artist. His lyrics reflect on everyday miseries or glumly celebrate the England of his childhood. Solo albums include Viva Hate (1987) and Your Arsenal (1992). His popularity declined in the UK in the 19...

mood
(grammar) In grammar, the form a verb takes to indicate the type of action the sentence expresses. The four moods a verb can take in English are indicative, interrogative, subjunctive, and imperative

morpheme
Basic unit of language; morphemes are the building blocks of which a language is constructed. They are the smallest units of sentence analysis and include prefixes, suffixes, verb endings, and root words

morphology
(languge) In the study of language, the analysis of the formation of words, the breaking-down of a language into morphemes

monologue
One person speaking, though the term is generally understood to mean a virtuoso, highly skilful solo performance. Literary monologues are often set pieces in which a character reveals his or her personality, sometimes unintentionally (as in the dramatic monologue); in drama the soliloquy performs a similar function. A monologue can occur in a d...

mountain gorilla
Highly endangered ape found in bamboo and rainforest on the Rwanda, Democratic Republic of Congo (formerly Zaire), and Uganda borders in central Africa, with a total population of around 600 (1995). It is threatened by deforestation and illegal hunting for skins and the zoo trade. (Subspecies Gorilla gorilla beringei.)

Morris, Jan
English travel writer and journalist. Her books display a zestful, witty, and knowledgeable style and offer deftly handled historical perspectives. They include Coast to Coast (1956), Venice (1960), Oxford (1965), Farewell the Trumpets (1978), and Among the Cities&...

Modern Movement
The dominant movement in 20th-century architecture, which grew out of the technological innovations of 19th-century Industrial architecture, crystallized in the international style of the 1920s and 1930s, and has since developed various regional trends, such as Brutalism. `Truth to materials` and `form follows function` ...

motif
(arts) In the arts, a distinct element or image within a work, such as a detail in a painting or building or a significant object or action in a novel, especially one which is repeated and echoed throughout the work

modelling
(art) In art, the depiction of a three-dimensional form either through the sculpture of a soft substance, or the use of light, shadow, and colour in painting and drawing. It is also the practice of posing as an artist's subject. In sculpture the technique of modelling uses clay or othe...

mobile phone
Cordless telephone linked to a cellular radio network. Early cellular networks used analogue technology, but since the late 1990s most services use a digital system. Calls are linked to the public telephone system via a network of connected base stations and exchanges; the area covered by each base station is called a cell. Each cell is about 5...

model
(computing) In computing, set of assumptions and criteria based on actual phenomena, used to conduct a computer simulation. Models are used to predict the behaviour of a system such as the movement of a hurricane or the flow of goods from a store. In industry, they are important tools for test...

monolith
Single isolated stone or column, usually standing and of great size, used as a form of monument. Some are natural features, such as the Buck Stone in the Forest of Dean, England. Other monoliths may be quarried, resited, finished, or carved; those in Egypt of about 3000 BC take the form of obelisks. They have a wide distribution including Europ...

Mohegan
Member of an American Indian people who moved from the upper Hudson River Valley to Connecticut in the 16th century. They were probably originally part of the neighbouring Pequot people, with whom they shared Algonquian linguistic and cultural traditions. The two groups split after the Mohegan allied with English colonists in the 1630s. Traditional...

monastery
Click images to enlargeAn abbey, priory, or convent for monks, friars, or nuns. An abbey (as the name implies) is under the rule of an abbot or abbess; similarly a priory is ruled by a prior or prioress. In cathedral monasteries the bishop was the abbot, and the superior of the establishment was a cathedral prior

monophonic
Music in a single melodic part, without harmony, as distinct from homophonic, which is melodic music accompanied by harmony, or polyphonic, which is music in a number of melodic parts moving simultaneously

molecular weight
See relative molecular mass

mountain man
Name given to beaver trappers working in the Rocky and Sierra Nevada mountains of the USA, between the Great Plains, California, and Oregon, in the 1820s and 1830s. Their travels were crucial to the future development of the USA. They were the first Americans to describe the fertile valleys of California and Oregon and find the mountain passes late...

monarchy
Government in which a single person holds a varying degree of legislative (law-making) and executive (administrative) power. Where such government has no constitutional checks or limits, it is known as absolutism, or absolute monarchy. Absolute monarchs rule by the `divine right of kings`, their right to rule being given by God and, t...

mobile phone style
Shorthand `code` developed to cope with the difficulty of sending text messages (SMS; short message service) via the keys on mobile phones. Many characters are borrowed from those developed for early Internet chat rooms

mobile
(sculpture) A sculpture consisting of a number of various objects and shapes, suspended on wire arms. Mobiles are designed to move freely and, therefore, change continuously in a current of air. Unlike traditional static sculpture, they create movement in space. The US sculptor Alexander Calde...

montage
(art) In art, a design made by sticking one material over another. Photomontage involves photographs being pasted together and overlaid, sometimes mixed with newspaper and magazine cuttings. This technique was very popular with the Dadaists, and more recently with David Hockney. In cinema, the...

modal verb
Verb which generally shows only mood. Common modals are may/might; will/would; can/could; shall/should; must. Modals are used in a wide variety of ...

mood
(art) In art appreciation, the general atmosphere, or state of mind and feelings, that a work of art generates. For example, the mood of a painting could be disturbing or tranquil, dark or energetic

Moorish
In architecture, a style similar to Moroccan and Islamic art. It featured horseshoe arches, elaborate decorative, intertwining patterns, and intricate mosaic work. The Moors were a mixed Berber and Arab race, inhabiting Morocco and the adjoining parts of northwest Africa, who conquered Spain and ruled its southern part from 711 to 1492

modelling
(design) Technique used when designing, to investigate ideas as part of the design process. Models can be static three-dimensional objects showing the shape, style, and texture of a design idea. Examples of materials used in this type of modelling include papier mâché, clay, plas...

mock-up
Rough but working model designed to see how part of a product works

motion
Process of moving; an object that is moving is said to be `in motion`. The speed at which an object is moving is often measured in metres per second (m/s) or kilometres per hour (kph). The motion of objects can be described using Newton's laws of motion

mol
Symbol for mole, the SI unit of amount of substance, equal to the amount that contains as many elementary entities (such as atoms, ions, or molecules) as there are atoms in 12 grams of carbon

MOMA
Acronym for the Museum of Modern Art, New York in New York City

Morales Ayma,
(Juan) Bolivian politician, president from 2006. The country's first indigenous president and a strong critic of `US imperialism`, he was elected in December 2005 on a pledge to re-found Bolivia through redistributing 20m hectares (50m acres) of land to the landless poor and ...

mph
Abbreviation for miles per hour

MPEG
In computing, a committee of the International Standards Organization, formed in 1988, that sets standards for digital audio and video compression; hence, any file that has been compressed using those standards. The MPEG-1 is the standard for the digital coding of video pictures for CD recording; MPEG-2 is a common standard for broa...

MP
Abbreviation for member of Parliament

mpg
Abbreviation for miles per gallon

MPLA
Socialist organization founded in the early 1950s that sought to free Angola from Portuguese rule 1961–75 before being involved in the civil war against its former allies UNITA and FNLA 1975–76. The MPLA gained control of the country in 1976 and in 1977 renamed itself the People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola-Workers'...

Mpumalanga
Province of the Republic of South Africa from 1994, formerly part of Transvaal province; area 81,816 sq km/31,589 sq mi; population (2000 est) 3,004,900. The capital is Nelspruit. Features of the province include Limpopo River, Vaal River, Blyde River Canyon Nature Reserve, and Mpumalanga Drakensberg Mountains. Mineral resources include...

MS-DOS
Computer operating system produced by Microsoft Corporation, widely used on microcomputers with Intel x86 and Pentium family microprocessors. A version called PC-DOS is sold by IBM specifically for its personal computers. MS-DOS and PC-DOS are usually referred to as DOS. MS-DOS first appeared in 1981, and was similar to an earlier s...

MS(S)
Abbreviation for manuscript(s)

MSc
In education, abbreviation for the degree of Master of Science. The US abbreviation is MS

mullein
Any of a group of herbaceous plants belonging to the figwort family. The great mullein (V. thapsus) has lance-shaped leaves 30 cm/12 in or more in length, covered in woolly down, and a large spike of yellow flowers. It is found in Europe and Asia and is naturalized in North America. (Genus Verbascum, fa...

mulberry
Any of a group of trees consisting of a dozen species, including the black mulberry (M. nigra). It is native to western Asia and has heart-shaped, toothed leaves and spikes of whitish flowers. It is widely cultivated for its compound fruits, which resemble raspberries. The leav...

Mutsuhito
Personal name of the Japanese emperor Meiji

Mustique
Island in the Caribbean; see St Vincent and the Grenadines

Muti, Riccardo
Italian conductor. Artistic director of La Scala, Milan, Italy, from 1986, he was previously conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra, 1973–82, and the Philadelphia Orchestra 1980–92. He is equally at home with operatic or symphonic repertoire and performs with bravura, energy, and scrupulous detail. He is known as a purist

Mustafa Kemal Pasha
Turkish leader who assumed the name Atatürk

Mussorgsky, Modest Petrovich
Russian composer. He was a member of the group of five composers (`The Five`). His opera masterpiece Boris Godunov (1869, revised 1871–72), touched a political nerve and employed realistic transcriptions of speech patterns. Many of his works, including Pictures at an Exhibition (1874) for piano, ...

Muslim Brotherhood
Sunni Islamic movement founded in Egypt in 1928, active throughout the Arab world although banned in most countries. It aims at the establishment of a Muslim state governed by Islamic law. The movement, founded by Hasan al-Banna (1906–1949), also operates under different names, such as the People of the Call (Alh al-Da'wa) in Alger...

music hall
British light theatrical entertainment, in which singers, dancers, comedians, and acrobats perform in `turns`. The music hall's heyday was at the beginning of the 20th century, with such artistes as Marie Lloyd, Harry Lauder, and George Formby. The US equivalent is vaudeville

musical
20th-century form of dramatic musical performance, combining elements of song, dance, and the spoken word, often characterized by lavish staging and large casts. It developed from the operettas and musical comedies of the 19th century. Operetta The operetta is a light-hearted entertainment with extensive musical content: Jacques Offenba...

music
Art of combining sounds into a structured form, usually according to conventional patterns and for an aesthetic (artistic) purpose. Music is generally divided into different genres or styles such as classical music, jazz, pop music, country, and so on. The Greek word mousike covered all the arts presided over by the Muses. The va...

Musgrave Ranges
Australian mountain ranges on the border between South Australia and the Northern Territory; the highest peak is Mount Woodruffe at 1,525 m/5,000 ft. The area is an Aboriginal reserve

muscular dystrophy
Any of a group of inherited chronic muscle disorders marked by weakening and wasting of muscle. Muscle fibres degenerate, to be replaced by fatty tissue, although the nerve supply remains unimpaired. Death occurs in early adult life. The commonest form, Duchenne muscular dystrophy, strikes boys (1 in 3,000), usually before the age of four. The chil...

Muscat
(city) Capital and port of Oman, lying on the Gulf of Oman; population (2001 est) 57,600. The Muscat region has a population of 635,300 (1999 est). With the advantage of a deepwater harbour at Matrah, in the western part of the city, Muscat handles the bulk of the country's foreign tra...

Murrumbidgee
River in New South Wales, Australia; length 1,609 km/1,000 mi. The Murrumbidgee rises in the Australian Alps, then flows north and west to meet the River Murray on the Victoria border. It is a major tributary of the Murray. The Murrumbidgee is navigable for 807 km/501 mi to Wagga Wagga during the winter months. The Murrumbidgee Irrigati...

Murray, James Augustus Henry
Scottish philologist. He was the first editor of the Oxford English Dictionary (originally the New English Dictionary) from 1878 until his death; the first volume was published in 1884. He was knighted in 1908

Murray
(river) Principal river of Australia, which rises in the Snowy Mountains of the Australian Alps near Mount Kosciusko, in New South Wales; length 2,540 km/1,578 mi. The Murray flows west and northwest, for most of its length forming the boundary between New South Wales and Victoria, the...

Murray, James Stuart
Regent of Scotland from 1567, an illegitimate son of James V by Lady Margaret Erskine, daughter of the 4th Earl of Mar. He became chief adviser to his half-sister Mary Queen of Scots on her return to Scotland in 1561, but lost her favour when he opposed her marriage in 1565 to Henry, Lord Darnley. He was one of the leaders of the Scottish Refor...

Murray,
(George) Australian-born British scholar. Author of History of Ancient Greek Literature (1897), he became known for verse translations of the Greek dramatists, notably of Euripides, which rendered the plays more accessible to readers

Murmansk
(city) Seaport and capital of the Murmansk oblast (region) located 1000 km/624 mi north of St Petersburg on the Kola Peninsula in the northwest of the Russian Federation; population (2002) 336,100. Situated on an estuary 50 km/31 mi inland from the Barents Sea, it is the largest ci...

murder
Unlawful killing of one person by another. In the USA, first-degree murder requires proof of premeditation; second-degree murder falls between first-degree murder and manslaughter

Murcia
(autonomous community) Autonomous community and province of southeast Spain, with a coastline on the Mediterranean Sea; area 11,317 sq km/4,370 sq mi; population (2001 est) 1,190,400. The River Segura and its tributaries (the Sangonera and the Quipar) flow through the region, which...

Murat, Joachim
King of Naples 1808–15. An officer in the French army, he was made king by Napoleon, but deserted him in 1813 in the vain hope that Austria and Great Britain would recognize him. In 1815 he attempted unsuccessfully to make himself king of all Italy, but when he landed in Calabria in an attempt to gain the throne he was captured and shot

Murasaki, Shikibu
Japanese writer. She was a lady at the court. Her masterpiece of fiction, The Tale of Genji (c. 1010), is one of the classic works of Japanese literature, and may be the world's first novel. She was a member of the Fujiwara clan, but her own name is not known; scholars have given her the name Murasaki a...

mural painting
Decoration of the wall designed for a specific site and incorporated into the architecture; unlike an easel painting, a mural's composition is influenced by its surroundings. Traditionally painted directly onto the wall surface, murals may also be created with mosaic, collage, and photographs, or painted onto a canvas and later fixed into p...

Munster
Historic southern province of the Republic of Ireland, comprising the counties of Clare, Cork, Kerry, Limerick, North and South Tipperary, and Waterford; area 24,140 sq km/9,320 sq mi; population (2002) 1,100,600. Before Henry II's reign, Munster was divided into two kingdoms, Desmond and Thomond. The English conquest of Ireland beg...

Munich Agreement
Pact signed on 29 September 1938 by the leaders of the UK (Neville Chamberlain), France (Edouard Daladier), Germany (Adolf Hitler), and Italy (Benito Mussolini), under which Czechoslovakia was compelled to surrender its Sudeten-German districts (the Sudeten) to Germany. Chamberlain claimed it would guarantee `peace in our time`, but i...

Munich
Capital of Bavaria, Germany, on the River Isar, about 520 m/1,706 ft above sea level, some 45 km/28 mi from the edge of the Alps; population (2003 est) 1,185,400, urban agglomeration 2,340,700. The main industries are brewing, printing, precision instruments, machinery, electrical goods, motor vehicles, computers, telecommunications, fa...

Munch, Edvard
Norwegian painter and graphic artist, a major influence on expressionism. His highly charged paintings, characterized by strong colours and distorted forms, often focus on intense emotional states, as in one of his best-known works The Scream (1893). His works brought a new urgency and power to the two themes that dominated l...

mumps
Virus infection marked by fever, pain, and swelling of one or both parotid salivary glands (situated in front of the ears). It is usually short-lived in children, although meningitis is a possible complication. In adults the symptoms are more serious and it may cause sterility in men. Mumps is the most common cause of meningitis in children, bu...

Mumford, Lewis
US urban planner and social critic, concerned with the adverse effect of technology on contemporary society

mummy
Any dead body, human or animal, that has been naturally or artificially preserved. Natural mummification can occur through freezing (for example, mammoths in glacial ice from 25,000 years ago), drying, or preservation in bogs or oil seeps. Artificial mummification may be achieved by embalming (for example, the mummies of ancient Egypt) or by freeze...

multiple sclerosis
Incurable chronic disease of the central nervous system, occurring in young or middle adulthood. Most prevalent in temperate zones, it affects more women than men. It is characterized by degeneration of the myelin sheath that surrounds nerves in the brain and spinal cord. Depending on where the demyelination occurs – which nerves are affected ...

Mulroney, Brian
Canadian politician, Progressive Conservative Party leader 1983–93, prime minister 1984–93. He achieved a landslide victory in the 1984 election, and won the 1988 election on a platform of free trade with the USA, but with a reduced majority. Opposition within Canada to the 1987 Meech Lake agreement, a prerequisite to signing the 1982 Con...

Mullingar
County town of County Westmeath, Republic of Ireland, on the River Brosna; population (2002) 8,800. It is an important road and rail junction and was a harbour on the (now disused) Royal Canal that links Dublin and the River Shannon. It is a cattle market and trout-fishing centre. Industries include tobacco, vinyl, furniture, and pencils

Mull
Second-largest island of the Inner Hebrides, Argyll and Bute, Scotland; area 950 sq km/367 sq mi; population (2001) 2,700. It is mountainous, and is separated from the mainland by the Sound of Mull and the Firth of Lorne; it lies 11 km/7 mi west of Oban. The main town is Tobermory, from which there are ferry connections to O...

Mukden, Battle of
Japanese victory over the Russians during the Russo-Japanese War, February–March 1905, outside Mukden (now called Shenyang), capital city of Manchuria. This was the last major battle of the war – the Russian defeat finally persuaded the tsar to accept US mediation in June 1905. Disposition of forces After the battle of Liaoyang in Sep...

mufti
Muslim legal expert who guides the courts in their interpretation. In Turkey the grand mufti had supreme spiritual authority until the establishment of the republic in 1924

Mubarak,
(Muhammad) Egyptian soldier and politician, president from 1981. He was vice-president to Anwar Sadat from 1975 and became president on Sadat's assassination in October 2001. He continued to pursue Sadat's moderate policies, including support for a peace treaty with Israel, and int...

mutton bird
Any of various shearwaters and petrels that breed in burrows on Australasian islands. Each parent feeds the chick for 2–3 days and then leaves for up to three weeks in search of food. These foraging trips can cover a distance of 15,000 km/9,300 mi and mean the chick may be left unattended for over a week. By the time the chicks have reache...

mussel
Click images to enlargeAny of a group of shellfish, some of which are edible, such as the common mussel (Mytilus edulis) which has a blue-black hinged shell and is found in clusters attached to rocks around the North Atlantic and American coasts. Mussels are bivalve molluscs. (Class Bivalvia, phylum...

muskrat
North American rodent, about 30 cm/12 in long, that lives beside streams, rivers, and lakes. It has webbed hind feet, a side-to-side flattened tail, and shiny, light-brown fur. It builds up a store of food, plastering it over with mud, for winter consumption. It is hunted for its fur. (Species Ondatra zibethicus, ...

musk ox
Ruminant (cud-chewing) mammal native to the Arctic regions of North America. It has characteristics of both sheep and oxen, is about the size of a small domestic cow, and has long brown hair. At certain seasons it has a musky smell. (Species Ovibos moschatus, family Bovidae.) I...

Murray cod
Australian freshwater fish that grows to about 2 m/6 ft. It is is named after the river in which it is found. (Species Maccullochella macquariensis.)

musk deer
Any of three species of small deer native to the mountains of central and northeastern Asia. A solitary animal, the musk deer is about 80–100 cm/30–40 in, sure-footed, and has large ears and no antlers. Males have long tusklike upper canine teeth. They are hunted and farmed for their musk (a waxy substance secreted by the male fro...

muntjac
Any of about nine species of small deer found in Southeast Asia. They live mostly in dense vegetation and do not form herds. The males have short spiked antlers and two sharp canine teeth forming tusks. They are sometimes called `barking deer` because of their voices. (Genus Muntiacus.)

mullet
Either of two species of fish. The red mullet (Mullus surmuletus) is found in the Mediterranean and warm Atlantic as far north as the English Channel. It is about 40 cm/16 in long, red with yellow stripes, and has long barbels (sensitive bristles) round the mouth. (Family Mullidae.) The grey mullet (Crenimugil labros...

mule
Hybrid animal, usually the offspring of a male ass and a female horse

mudskipper
Any of a group of fishes belonging to the goby family, found in brackish water and shores in the tropics, except for the Americas. It can walk or climb over mudflats, using its strong pectoral (chest) fins as legs, and has eyes set close together on top of the head. It grows up to 30 cm/12 in lon...

mudpuppy
Any of five species of brownish salamanders, living in fresh water in North America. They all breathe in water using external gills. The species N. maculatus is about 20 cm/8 in long. Mudpuppies eat fish, snails, and other invertebrates. (Genus Necturus, family Proteidae.)

mudnester
Any of an Australian group of birds that make their nests from mud, including the apostle bird (Struthidea cinerea) (so called from its appearance in little flocks of about 12), the white-winged chough (Corcorax melanorhamphos), and the magpie lark (Grallina cyanoleuca)