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


Atlantic, Battle of the
(World War I) German campaign during World War I to prevent merchant shipping from delivering food supplies from the USA to the Allies, chiefly the UK. By 1917, some 875,000 tons of shipping had been lost. The odds were only turned by the belated use of naval convoys and depth charges to deter...

atmospheric pressure
Pressure at any point on the Earth's surface that is due to the weight of the column of air above it; it therefore decreases as altitude increases, because there is less air above. Particles in the air exert a force (pressure) against surfaces; when large numbers of particles press against a surface, the overall effect is known as air p...

atomic mass unit
Unit of mass that is used to measure the relative mass of atoms and molecules. It is equal to one-twelfth of the mass of a carbon-12 atom, which is approximately the mass of a proton or 1.66 × 10-27 kg. The relative atomic mass of an atom has no units; thus oxygen-16 has an atomic mass of 16 daltons b...

atomic radiation
Click images to enlargeEnergy given out by disintegrating atoms during radioactive decay. The energy may be in the form of fast-moving particles, known as alpha particles and beta particles, or in the form of high-energy electromagnetic waves known as gamma radiation. Overlong exposure to atomic radiation can lead...

atomic clock
Timekeeping device regulated by various periodic processes occurring in atoms and molecules, such as atomic vibration or the frequency of absorbed or emitted radiation. The first atomic clock was the ammonia clock, invented at the US National Bureau of Standards in 1948. It was regulated by measuring the speed at which the nitrogen atom in an ammon...

atomicity
Number of atoms of an element that combine together to form a molecule. A molecule of oxygen (O2) has atomicity 2; sulphur (S8) has atomicity 8

atomic structure
Internal structure of an atom. The nucleus The core of the atom is the nucleus, a dense body only one ten-thousandth the diameter of the atom itself. The simplest nucleus, that of hydrogen, comprises a single stable positively charged particle, the proton. Nuclei of other elements contain more pr...

Atlanta
Capital and largest city of Georgia, situated 300 m/984 ft above sea level in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains; seat of Fulton County; population (2000 est) 416,500. It is the headquarters of Coca-Cola and also since 1994 EarthLink, an Internet service provider second only to AOL in the USA. Ford and Lockheed motor-vehi...

Atlantic City
Seaside resort on Absecon Island, Atlantic County, southeastern New Jersey, USA; population (2000 est) 40,500. Formerly a family resort, Atlantic City is now a centre for casino gambling, which was legalized here in 1978 to help revive the flagging tourist trade. Other industries include shell fishing

atomic mass
See relative atomic mass

atom, electronic structure of
Arrangement of electrons around the nucleus of an atom, in distinct energy levels, also called atomic orbitals, or shells. In a simplified description, these shells can be regarded as a series of concentric spheres, each of which can contain a certain maximum number of electrons; the noble gases (rare gases) have an arrangement in which every s...

attrition
In earth science, the process by which particles of rock are rounded and gradually reduced in size by hitting one another as they are transported by rivers, wind, or the sea. The rounding of particles is a good indication of how far they have been transported. This is particularly true for particles carried by rivers, which become more rounded and ...

Atatürk Dam
Dam on the River Euphrates, in the province of Gaziantep, southern Turkey, completed in 1989. The lake, 550 km/340 mi southeast of Ankara, covers 815 sq km/315 sq mi (when full, it holds four times the annual flow of the Euphrates). In 1990 it was filled for the first time, submerging 25 villages, all of whose 55,000 inhabitants were reloca...

attachment
Way of incorporating a file into an e-mail message for transmission. Within a single system, such as a corporate local area network (LAN) or a commercial online service, binary files can be sent intact. Over the Internet, attached files must be encoded into ASCII characters and then decoded by the receiver. See MIME

Athelstan
King of England 924–39. The son of Edward the Elder, Athelstan brought about English unity by ruling both Mercia and Wessex. He defeated an invasion by Scots, Irish, and the men of Strathclyde at Brunanburh in 937. He overcame the Scandinavian kingdom based in York and increased English power on the Welsh and Scottish borders

autolysis
In biology, the destruction of a cell after its death by the action of its own enzymes, which break down its structural molecules

Australian Alps
Southeastern and highest area of the Eastern Highlands of Australia, extending for about 433 km/269 mi through Victoria and New South Wales in a northeasterly direction, and forming a continuation of the Great Dividing Range. They include the Snowy Mountains and Mount Kosciusko, Australia's highest mountain, 2,229 m/7,316 ft. The Alps a...

autumn crocus
Any of a group of late-flowering plants belonging to the lily family. The mauve meadow saffron (Colchicum autumnale) yields colchicine, which is used in treating gout and in plant breeding. (Genus Colchicum, family Liliaceae.) Colchicine causes plants to double the numbers of their chromosomes, forming poly...

aubrieta
Any of a group of spring-flowering dwarf perennial plants native to the Middle East. All are trailing plants with showy, purple flowers. They are widely cultivated in rock gardens. (Genus Aubrieta, family Cruciferae.)

aubergine
Plant belonging to the nightshade family, native to tropical Asia. Its purple-skinned, sometimes white, fruits are eaten as a vegetable. (Solanum melongena, family Solanaceae.)

Auriga
Constellation of the northern hemisphere, represented as a charioteer. Its brightest star is the first-magnitude Capella, about 42 light years from the Sun; Epsilon Aurigae is an eclipsing binary star with a period of 27 years, the longest of its kind (last eclipse in 1983)

Auvergne
Ancient province of central France and modern region comprising the départements of Allier, Cantal, Haute-Loire, and Puy-de-Dôme; administrative centre Clermont-Ferrand; area 26,013 sq km/10,044 sq mi; population (1999 est) 1,308,900. It is a mountainous area, composed chiefly of volcanic...

autosuggestion
Conscious or unconscious acceptance of an idea as true, without demanding rational proof, but with potential subsequent effect for good or ill. Pioneered by French psychotherapist Emile Coué in healing, it is sometimes used in modern psychotherapy to conquer nervous habits and dependence on addictive substances such as tobacco and alcohol

automaton
Mechanical figure imitating human or animal performance. Automatons are usually designed for aesthetic appeal as opposed to purely functional robots. The writings of Ctesibius of Alexandria in the 3nd century BC show that in his time there was already a long tradition of building automata, such as model birds that sang or flapped their wings. A Chi...

autoimmunity
In medicine, condition in which the body's immune responses are mobilized not against `foreign` matter, such as invading germs, but against the body itself. Diseases considered to be of autoimmune origin include myasthenia gravis, rheumatoid arthritis, and lupus erythematosus. In autoimmune diseases T-lymphocytes reproduce to exce...

auto-da-fé
Religious ceremony, including a procession, solemn mass, and sermon, which accompanied the sentencing of heretics by the Spanish Inquisition before they were handed over to the secular authorities for punishment, usually burning

autobiography
A person's own biography, or written account of his or her life, distinguished from a journal or diary by being a connected prose narrative, and distinguished from memoirs by dealing less with contemporary events and personalities. The Boke of Margery Kempe (c. 1432–36) is the oldest known autobiograph...

autism
One of a spectrum of disorders defined by problems with communication, imagination, and social interaction. The symptoms may be present from birth or may develop in early childhood, around the third year. In rare cases, autistic individuals may show extraordinary talents in some areas, for example music, arithmetics, or drawing, but most will have ...

authoritarianism
Rule of a country by a dominant elite who repress opponents and the press to maintain their own wealth and power. They are frequently indifferent to activities not affecting their security, and rival power centres, such as trade unions and political parties, are often allowed to exist, although under tight control. An extreme form is totalitarianis...

Austrian Succession, War of the
War 1740–48 between Austria (supported by England and Holland) and Prussia (supported by France and Spain). The Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI died in 1740 and the succession of his daughter Maria Theresa was disputed by a number of European powers. Frederick the Great of Prussia seized Silesia from Austria. At Dettingen in 1743 an army of Brit...

Austro-Hungarian Empire
The Dual Monarchy established by the Habsburg Franz Joseph in 1867 between his empire of Austria and his kingdom of Hungary (including territory that became Czechoslovakia as well as parts of Poland, the Ukraine, Romania, Yugoslavia, and Italy). It collapsed in the autumn of 1918 with the end of World War I. Only two king-emperors ruled: Fr...

Australian Capital Territory
Federal territory of southeastern Australia, an enclave in the state of New South Wales; it includes Jervis Bay Territory (the site of Canberra's port on the coast) for administrative purposes; area 2,400 sq km/926 sq mi (Jervis Bay 73 sq km/28 sq mi); population (2001 est) 31...

Austerlitz, Battle of
Battle on 2 December 1805, in which the French forces of Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte defeated those of Alexander I of Russia and Francis II of Austria at a small town in the Czech Republic (formerly in Austria), 19 km/12 mi east of Brno. The battle was one of Napoleon's greatest victories, resulting in the end of the coalition against France...

auscultation
Evaluation of internal organs by listening, usually with the aid of a stethoscope

Austen, Jane
English novelist. She described her raw material as `three or four families in a Country Village`. Sense and Sensibility was published in 1811, Pride and Prejudice in 1813, Mansfield Park in 1814, Emma in 1816, and Northanger Abbey and ...

aurora
(astronomy) Coloured light in the night sky near the Earth's magnetic poles, called aurora borealis (`northern lights`) in the northern hemisphere and aurora australis (`southern lights`) in the southern hemisphere. Although auroras are usually restricted to the polar s...

Aurignacian
In archaeology, an Old Stone Age culture in Europe that came between the Mousterian and the Solutrean in the Upper Palaeolithic. The name is derived from a rock-shelter at Aurignac in the Pyrenees of France. The earliest cave paintings and figurines are attributed to the Aurignacian peoples of Western Europe about 30,000 BC

Aurelius, Marcus
Roman emperor; see Marcus Aurelius Antoninus

Auric, Georges
French composer. His works include a comic opera, several ballets, and incidental music to films including Jean Cocteau's Orphée/Orpheus (1950). He was one of the musical group called Les Six, who were influenced by Erik Satie

Aurelian
Roman emperor 270–75. A successful soldier, he was proclaimed emperor by his troops on the death of Claudius II. He campaigned on the Danube and then defeated a large raid into Italy mounted by the Alamanni and Juthungi. He moved east and captured Queen Zenobia of Palmyra (now Tadmur, Syria) by the end of 272, destroying Palmyra itself in 273....

Aurangzeb
Mogul emperor of northern India from 1658. Third son of Shah Jahan, he made himself master of the court by a palace revolution. His reign was the most brilliant period of the Mogul dynasty, but his despotic tendencies and Muslim fanaticism aroused much opposition. His latter years were spent in war with the princes of Rajputana and the Marathas and...

Aung San
Burmese (Myanmar) politician. He was a founder and leader of the Anti-Fascist People's Freedom League, which led Burma's fight for independence from the UK. During World War II he collaborated first with Japan and then with the UK. In 1947 he became head of Burma's provisional government but was assassinated the same year by politic...

Augustinian
Member of a religious community that follows the Rule of St Augustine of Hippo. It includes the Canons of St Augustine, Augustinian Friars and Hermits, Premonstratensians, Gilbertines, and Trinitarians

Augustine, St
First archbishop of Canterbury, England. He was sent from Rome to convert England to Christianity by Pope Gregory I. He landed at Ebbsfleet in Kent in 597 and soon after baptized Ethelbert, King of Kent, along with many of his subjects. He was consecrated bishop of the English at Arles in the same year, and appointed archbishop in 601, establishing...

Augustine of Hippo, St
One of the early Christian leaders and writers known as the Fathers of the Church. He was converted to Christianity by Ambrose in Milan and became bishop of Hippo (modern Annaba, Algeria) in 396. Among Augustine's many writings are his Confessions, a spiritual autobiography, and De Civitate Dei/The City of God<...

augur
Member of a college of Roman priests who interpreted the will of the gods from signs or `auspices` such as the flight, song, or feeding of birds, the condition of the entrails of sacrificed animals, and the direction of thunder and lightning. Their advice was sought before battle and on other important occasions. Consuls and other high of...

Augsburg, Confession of
Statement of the Lutheran faith composed by Philip Melanchthon. Presented to the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, at the Diet of Augsburg in 1530, it was intended originally as a working document for the negotiations at the Diet aiming at reconciliation between Lutherans and Catholics. It came, however, to be seen as the crucial expression of Lutheran...

Augsburg
Industrial city in Bavaria, Germany, at the confluence of the Wertach and Lech rivers, 52 km/32 mi northwest of Munich; population (2005 est) 262,700. Products include textiles, cash registers, diesel engines, motor vehicles, electrical goods, and aircraft. It is named after the Roman emperor Augustus, who founded it in 15 BC. In the Middle...

Augustan Age
Age of the Roman emperor Augustus (31 BC–AD 14), during which art and literature flourished. It is also used to characterize the work of 18th-century writers who adopted the style, themes, and structure of classical texts. See also English literature. The term is used with particular reference to the works of the Augustan poets, Virgil, Ho...

Audubon, John James
US naturalist and artist. In 1827, after extensive travels and observations of birds, he published the first part of his Birds of North America, with a remarkable series of colour plates. Later he produced a similar work on North American quadrupeds. The National Audubon Society (founded 1886) has branches throughout the USA and ...

audit
Official inspection of a company's accounts by a qualified accountant as required by law each year to ensure that the company balance sheet reflects the true state of its affairs

Aude
(river) River in southeast France, which rises in the département of Pyrénées-Orientales, then flows north and east through the département of Aude and into the Mediterrane...

Auden, W(ystan) H(ugh)
English-born US poet. He wrote some of his most original poetry, such as Look, Stranger! (1936), in the 1930s when he led the influential left-wing literary group that included the writers Louis MacNeice, Stephen Spender, and Cecil Day-Lewis. Auden moved to the USA in 1939, became a US citizen in 1946, and adopted...

Auckland
(city) Largest city in New Zealand, in the north of North Island, in an area of impressive volcanic scenery; population (2001 est) city, 377,400, urban agglomeration, 1,064,700. It is the main commercial and industrial centre and ...

Auchinleck, Claude John Eyre
British commander in World War II. He commanded the First Battle of El Alamein in 1942 in northern Egypt, in which he held Rommel's allied German and Italian forces at bay. In 1943 he became commander-in-chief in India and founded the modern Indian and Pakistani armies. In 1946 he was promoted to field marshal; he retired in 1947

Aubrey, John
English biographer and antiquary. He was the first to claim Stonehenge as a Druid temple. His Lives, begun in 1667, contains gossip, anecdotes, and valuable insights into the celebrities of his time. It was published as Brief Lives in 1898. Miscellanies (1696), a work on folklore and ghost st...

autonomic nervous system
In mammals, the part of the nervous system that controls those functions not controlled voluntarily, including the heart rate, activity of the intestines, and the production of sweat. There are two divisions of the autonomic nervous system. The sympathetic system responds to stress, when it speeds the heart rate, increases blood pressure, and gener...

autosome
Any chromosome in the cell other than a sex chromosome. Autosomes are of the same number and kind in both males and females of a given species

auxin
Plant hormone that regulates stem and root growth in plants. Auxins influence many aspects of plant growth and development, including cell enlargement, inhibition of development of axillary buds, tropisms, and the initiation of roots. Auxin affects cell division mainly at the tip, because it is here that cell division in a stem or root mainly occur...

automation
Widespread use of self-regulating machines in industry. Automation involves the addition of control devices, using electronic sensing and computing techniques, which often follow the pattern of human nervous and brain functions, to already mechanized physical processes of production and distribut...

autotroph
Any living organism that synthesizes organic substances from inorganic molecules by using light or chemical energy. Autotrophs are the primary producers in all food chains since the materials they synthesize and store are the energy sources of all other organisms. All green plants and many planktonic...

automatic pilot
Control device that keeps an aeroplane flying automatically on a given course at a given height and speed. The automatic pilot contains a set of gyroscopes that provide references for the plane's course. Sensors detect when the plane deviates from this course and send signals to the control surfaces – the ailerons, elevators, and rudder &#...

autoclave
Pressurized vessel that uses superheated steam to sterilize materials and equipment such as surgical instruments. It is similar in principle to a pressure cooker

autochrome
In photography, a single-plate additive colour process devised by the Lumière brothers in 1903. It was the first commercially available process, in use 1907–35

auk
Oceanic bird belonging to the family Alcidae, order Charadriiformes, consisting of 22 species of marine diving birds including razorbills, puffins, murres, and guillemots. Confined to the northern hemisphere, their range extends from well inside the Arctic Circle to the lower temperate regions. They ...

aurochs
Extinct species of long-horned wild cattle Bos primigenius that formerly roamed Europe, southwestern Asia, and North Africa. It survived in Poland until 1627. Black to reddish or grey, it was up to 1.8 m/6 ft at the shoulder. It is depicted in many cave paintings, and is considered the ancestor of domestic cattle

autogiro
Heavier-than-air craft that supports itself in the air with a rotary wing, or rotor. The Spanish aviator Juan de la Cierva designed the first successful autogiro in 1923. The autogiro's rotor provides only lift and not propulsion; it has been superseded by the helicopter, in which the rotor provides both. The autogiro is propelled b...

Australia
Click images to enlargeCountry occupying all of the Earth's smallest continent, situated south of Indonesia, between the Pacific and Indian oceans. Government Australia is an independent sovereign nation within the Commonwealth. It has a federal, multiparty political system, with a prime minister at the head of the po...

Austria
Click images to enlargeLandlocked country in central Europe, bounded east by Hungary, south by Slovenia and Italy, west by Switzerland and Liechtenstein, northwest by Germany, north by the Czech Republic, and northeast by the Slovak Republic. Government Austria is a federal democratic republic with a parliamentary executi...

Australian art
Art in Australia appears to date back at least 40,000 years, judging by radiocarbon dates obtained from organic material trapped in varnish covering apparently abstract rock engravings in South Australia, but may be even older, since worn crayons of ochre have been found in occupation layers of more than 50,000 years ago. Aboriginal art is closely ...

auction bridge
Card game played by two pairs of players using all 52 cards in a standard deck. The chief characteristic is the selection of trumps by a preliminary bid or auction. It has been succeeded by contract bridge

autarky
National economic policy that aims at achieving self-sufficiency

automatism
(medicine) Performance of actions without awareness or conscious intent. It is seen in sleep-walking and in some (relatively rare) psychotic states

autumnal equinox
See equinox

Australian Aborigine
Click images to enlargeMember of any of the 500 groups of indigenous inhabitants of the continent of Australia, who migrated to this region from South Asia about 40,000 years ago. Traditionally hunters and gatherers, they are found throughout the continent and their languages probably belong to more than one linguistic fa...

Aurora
(mythology) In Roman mythology, goddess of the dawn (Greek Eos). Preceded by her sons, the fresh morning winds, she would fly or drive a chariot across the sky to announce the approach of Apollo's chariot bearing the sun

Auschwitz
Click images to enlargeTown near Kraków in Poland; the site of the notorious Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp used by the Nazis in World War II to exterminate Jews and other political and social minorities, as part of the `final solution`; population (2002) 41,400. The camp's four gas c...

autopsy
Examination of the internal organs and tissues of a dead body, performed to try to establish the cause of death

Augean stables
In Greek mythology, the stables of Augeas, king of Elis in southern Greece. The yards, containing 3,000 cattle, had not been swept for 30 years. Heracles had to clean them as one of 12 labours set by Eurystheus, king of Argos; a feat accomplished in one day by diverting the rivers Peneius and Alpheus

authenticity
In music, a trend initiated in Austria and the Netherlands in the 1950s and 1960s aiming to reproduce the original conditions of early music performance and instrumentation as a means of rediscovering aesthetic terms of reference. It was pioneered by performers like Nikolaus Harnoncourt and Gustav Leonhardt. Authenticity stimulated important practi...

autonomy
In politics, a term used to describe political self-government of a state or, more commonly, a subdivision of a state. Autonomy may be based upon cultural or ethnic differences and often leads eventually to independence

autocracy
Form of government in which one person holds absolute power. The autocrat has uncontrolled and undisputed authority. Russian government under the tsars was an autocracy extending from the mid-16th century to the early 20th century. The title Autocratix (a female autocrat) was assumed by Catherine II of Russia in the 18th cent...

autoradiography
In biology, a technique for following the movement of molecules within an organism, especially a plant, by labelling with a radioactive isotope that can be traced on photographs. It is commonly used to study photosynthesis, where the pathway of radioactive carbon dioxide can be traced as it moves through the various chemical stages

Austin
Capital of Texas, USA, on the Colorado River; seat of Travis County; population (2000 est) 656,600. It is the market centre for the surrounding agricultural region, and an important centre for electronic and scientific research and the manufacture of high technology goods, including semiconductors and computers. It was incorporated in 1839....

Austronesian languages
Family of languages spoken in Malaysia, the Indonesian archipelago, parts of the region that was formerly Indochina, Taiwan, Madagascar, Melanesia, and Polynesia (excluding Australia and most of New Guinea). The group contains some 500 distinct languages, including Malay in Malaysia, Bahasa in Indonesia, Fijian, Hawaiian, and Maori. There are 1,200...

Australian Aboriginal religions
Beliefs associated with the creation legends recorded in the Dreamtime stories

auxiliary verb
Verb that is used with a `main` verb to help form a specific tense, and also negatives and questions. Meaning a `helping` verb, the auxiliary verbs are to be, to have, and to do, as in `That can be changed`, `You must have
automatism
(art) In the arts, an act of creation which either allows chance to play a major role or which draws on the unconscious mind through free association, states of trance, or dreams. Automatism was fundamental to surrealism, whose practitioners experimented with automatic writing and automatic dr...

Aung San Suu Kyi
Burmese (Myanmar) politician; see Suu Kyi

Aurelius Antoninus
Full name of Caracalla, Roman emperor from 211

Australian terrier
Small low-set dog with a long body and straight back. Its straight, rough coat is about 5–6.5 cm/2–2.5 in long, and blue or silver-grey, and tan or clear red or sandy in colour. It has a long head with a topknot of soft hair and ears either pricked or dropped forwards towards the front. Australian terriers are about 25 cm/...

audience
In literature and drama, the hearers or spectators of an event, the readers of a book, or the people who regularly watch or listen to a particular television or radio programme

Avon
(Northamptonshire, Warwickshire) River in southern England; length 154 km/96 mi. It rises in the Northamptonshire uplands near Naseby and flows southwest through Warwick, Stratford-upon-Avon, and Evesham, before joining the River Severn near Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire

Avila
(city) Capital of Avila province, central Spain, situated 1,100 m/3,609 ft above sea level 90 km/56 mi northwest of Madrid, and enclosed on three sides by mountains; population (2001) 49,700. It has a Gothic cathedral and ...

Avignon
City in Provence, France, administrative centre of Vaucluse département, on the River Rhône, 80 km/50 mi northwest of Marseille; population (2002 est) 86,600. Tourism and food processing are important; other industries include the manufacture of leather, texti...

Aviemore
All-year sports and tourist centre, in the Highland unitary authority, Scotland, 45 km/28 mi southeast of Inverness and adjacent to the Cairngorm Mountains; population (2001) 2,400. The centre specializes in winter sporting activities. Aviemore was extensively developed in the 1960s as Britain's first complete holiday and sports cen...

Avicenna
Iranian philosopher and physician. He was the most renowned philosopher of medieval Islam. His Canon Medicinae was a standard work for many centuries. His philosophical writings were influenced by al-Farabi, Aristotle, and the neo-Platonists, and in turn influenced the scholastics of the 13th century

Averroës
Arabian philosopher who argued for the eternity of matter and against the immortality of the individual soul. His philosophical writings, including commentaries on Aristotle and on Plato's Republic, became known to the West through Latin translations. He influenced Christian and Jewish writers into the Renaissance, and reconc...

Ave Maria
Christian prayer to the Virgin Mary, which takes its name from the archangel Gabriel's salutation to the Virgin Mary when announcing that she would be the mother of the Messiah (Luke 11:28)

Avebury
Europe's largest stone circle (diameter 412 m/1,350 ft), in Wiltshire, England. This megalithic henge monument is thought to be part of a ritual complex, and contains 650 massive blocks of stone arranged in circles and avenues. It was probably constructed around 3,500 years ago, and is linked with nearby Silbury Hill. The henge, an earthen ...