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


nucleus
(physics) In physics, the positively-charged central part of an atom, which constitutes almost all its mass. Except for hydrogen nuclei, which have only one proton, nuclei are composed of both protons and neutrons. Surrounding the nucleus are electrons, of equal and opposite charge to that...

nuclear winter
Possible long-term effect of a widespread nuclear war. In the wake of the destruction caused by nuclear blasts and the subsequent radiation, it has been suggested that atmospheric pollution by dust, smoke, soot, and ash could prevent the Sun's rays from penetrating for a period of time sufficient to eradicate most plant life on which other ...

nuclear waste
The radioactive and toxic by-products of the nuclear energy and nuclear weapons industries. Nuclear waste may have an active life of several thousand years. Reactor waste is of three types: high-level spent fuel, or the residue when nuclear fuel has been removed from a reactor and reproce...

nuclear arms verification
The process of checking the number and types of nuclear weapons held by a country in accordance with negotiated limits. The chief means are: reconnaissance satellites that detect submarines or weapon silos, using angled cameras to give three-dimensional pictures of installations, penetrating camouflage by means of scanners, and partially se...

Nuremberg trials
After World War II, the trials of the 24 chief Nazi war criminals November 1945–October 1946 by an international military tribunal consisting of four judges and four prosecutors: one of each from the USA, UK, USSR, and France. An appendix accused the German cabinet, general staff, high command, Nazi leadership corps, SS, Sturmabteilung, an...

nun
Woman belonging to a religious order under the vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, and living under a particular rule. Christian convents are ruled by a superior (often elected), who is subject to the authority of the bishop of the diocese or sometimes directly to the pope. See monasticism. It is possible that the institution of Christian com...

nutmeg
Kernel of the hard aromatic seed of the evergreen nutmeg tree, native to the Maluku Islands, Indonesia. Both the nutmeg and its secondary covering, known as mace, are used as spices in cookery. (Myristica fragrans, family Myristicaceae.)

Nuremberg rallies
Annual meetings 1933–38 of the German Nazi Party. They were characterized by extensive torchlight parades, marches in party formations, and mass rallies addressed by Nazi leaders such as Hitler and Goebbels

nuclear physics
Study of the properties of the nucleus of the atom, including the structure of nuclei; nuclear forces; the interactions between particles and nuclei; and the study of radioactive decay. The study of elementary particles is particle physics

nuisance
In law, interference with enjoyment of, or rights over, land. There are two kinds of nuisance. Private nuisance affects a particular occupier of land, such as noise from a neighbour; the aggrieved occupier can apply for an injunction and claim damages. Public nuisance affects an indefinite number of members of the public, such as obstructing th...

Nuba
Member of a minority ethnic group forming many small autonomous groups in southern Sudan, and numbering about 1 million (1991). They are primarily agriculturalists, and go in for elaborate body painting. They speak related dialects of Nubian, which belongs to the Chari-Nile family. Forced Islamization threatens their cultural identity, and thou...

Nu, U
(Thakin) Myanmar politician, prime minister of Burma (now Myanmar) for most of the period from 1947 to the military coup of 1962. He was the country's first democratically elected prime minister. Exiled from 1966, U Nu returned to the country in 1980 and, in 1988, helped found the National...

nuclear reactor
Device for producing nuclear energy in a controlled manner. There are various types of reactor in use, all using nuclear fission. In a gas-cooled reactor, a circulating gas under pressure (such as carbon dioxide) removes heat from the core of the reactor, which usually contains natural uranium. T...

Nureyev, Rudolf Hametovich
Russian dancer and choreographer. A soloist with the Kirov Ballet, he defected to the West during a visit to Paris in 1961. Mainly associated with the Royal Ballet (London) and as Margot Fonteyn's principal partner, he was one of the most brilliant dancers of the 1960s and 1970s. Nureyev danced i...

nuclear safety
Measures to avoid accidents in the operation of nuclear reactors and in the production and disposal of nuclear weapons and of nuclear waste. There are no guarantees of the safety of any of the various methods of disposal. Nuclear safety is a controversial subject – some governments do not acknowledge the hazards of atomic radiation and radiati...

nuclear fusion
Process in which two atomic nuclei are fused, with the release of a large amount of energy. Very high temperatures and pressures are required for the process. Under these conditions the atoms involved are stripped of all their electrons so that the remaining particles, which together make up a plasma, can come close together at very high speeds and...

nucleon
In particle physics, either a proton or a neutron, when present in the atomic nucleus. Nucleon number is an alternative name for the mass number of an atom

nuclide
In physics, a species of atomic nucleus characterized by the number of protons (Z) and the number of neutrons (N). Nuclides with identical proton number but differing neutron number are called isotopes

nuclear energy
Click images to enlargeEnergy released from the inner core, or nucleus, of the atom. Energy produced by nuclear fission (the splitting of certain atomic nuclei) has been harnessed since the 1950s to generate electricity, and research continues into the possible controlled use of nuclear fusion (the fusing, or combining, o...

Nunavut
Semi-autonomous Inuit homeland, established as a territory of Canada on 1 April 1999. It consists of former parts of the Northwest Territories, Canada, including Keewatin and Kitikmeo t, the Arctic Islands of Baffin, Ellesmere, Devon, Prince of Wales and Banks, and the eastern areas of Victoria and Melville Islands, as well as Southampton and sm...

number
(language) In grammar, the feature of a noun, verb, or pronoun that denotes whether it is singular or plural. The number of a noun will determine the number of its verb; singular nouns and pronouns usually take a singular verb (`The cat runs`), and plural nouns and pronouns usual...

Nurmi, Paavo Johannes
Finnish long distance runner. He was known as the `Flying Finn`, and won nine Olympic gold medals, including five at the 1924 Games. He broke 20 world records in 16 separate events ranging from the 1,500 metres to the 20,000 metres. Through his achievements and his scientific approach to training and racing he transformed competitive runn...

nutrient cycle
Transfer of nutrients from one part of an ecosystem to another. Trees, for example, take up nutrients such as calcium and potassium from the soil through their root systems and store them in leaves. When the leaves fall they are decomposed by bacteria and the nutrients are released back into the soil where they become available for root uptake agai...

number line
In mathematics, a way of displaying consecutive numbers diagrammatically. A number line shows negative numbers to the left of zero and positive numbers to the right of zero, extending in each direction to infinity. A number line can be used to show integers, fractions, and/or decimal fractions. For example:

NVQ
Abbreviation for national vocational qualification

nylon
Synthetic long-chain polymer similar in chemical structure to protein. Nylon was the first fully synthetic fibre. Made from petroleum, natural gas, air, and water, nylon was developed in 1935 by the US chemist W H Carothers and his associates, who worked for Du Pont. It is used in the manufacture of moulded articles, textiles, and medical sutur...

Nyasa, Lake
Alternative name for Lake Malawi

nymph
(entomology) In entomology, the immature form of insects that do not have a pupal stage; for example, grasshoppers and dragonflies. Nymphs generally resemble the adult (unlike larvae), but do not have fully formed reproductive organs or wings

Nyasaland
Former name (to 1964) of Malawi, a country in Africa

nymph
(mythology) In Greek mythology, a guardian spirit of nature. Dryads or hamadryads guarded trees; naiads, springs and pools; oreads, hills and rocks; oceanids, the open sea; and Nereids, the Aegean

Nyerere, Julius Kambarage
Tanzanian socialist politician, president 1964–85. He devoted himself from 1954 to the formation of the Tanganyika African National Union and subsequent campaigning for independence. He became chief minister in 1960, was prime minister of Tanganyika 1961–62, president of the newly formed Tanganyika Republic 1962–64, and first preside...

Nyers, Rezso
Hungarian socialist leader. A member of the politburo from 1966 and the architect of Hungary's liberalizing economic reforms in 1968, he was ousted from power by hardliners in 1974. In 1988 he was brought back into the politburo, and was head of the newly formed Hungarian Socialist Party 1989–90

Nyanja
A central African people living mainly in Malawi, and numbering about 400,000 (1984). The Nyanja are predominantly farmers, living in villages under a hereditary monarchy. They speak a Bantu language belonging to the Niger-Congo family

Nyman, Michael
English composer. His highly stylized music is characterized by processes of gradual modification by repetition of complex musical formulae (known as minimalism). His compositions include scores for the English film-maker Peter Greenaway and the New Zealand film-maker Jane Campion (The Piano, 1992); a chamber opera, &...

oat
Click image to enla rgeType of annual grass, a cereal crop. The plant has long narrow leaves and a stiff straw stem; the panicles of flowers (clusters around the main stem), and later of grain, hang downwards. The cultivated oat (A. sativa) is produced for human and animal food. (Genus Avena...

oak
Click images to enlargeAny of a group of trees or shrubs belonging to the beech family, with over 300 known species widely distributed in temperate zones. Oaks are valuable for timber, the wood being durable and straight-grained. Their fruits are called acorns. (Genus Quercus, family Fagaceae.)

OAU
Abbreviation for Organization of African Unity, the former name (until 2001) of the African Union

Oates, Laurence Edward Grace
English Antarctic explorer who accompanied Robert Falcon Scott on his second expedition to the South Pole. On the return journey, suffering from frostbite, he went out alone into the blizzard to die rather than delay the others

Oates, Titus
English conspirator. A priest, he entered the Jesuit colleges at Valladolid, Spain, and St Omer, France, as a spy in 1677–78, and on his return to England announced he had discovered a `Popish Plot` to murder Charles II and re-establish Catholicism. Although this story was almost entirely false, many innocent Roman Catholics were...

OAS
Abbreviation for Organization of American States

oasis
Area of land made fertile by the presence of water near the surface in an otherwise arid region. The occurrence of oases affects the distribution of plants, animals, and people in the desert regions of the world

Oakland
Industrial port in Alameda County in central California, USA, on the eastern, inland coast of San Francisco Bay; population (2000 est) 399,500. It is linked by the Bay Bridge (opened 1936) with San Francisco. Industries include food-processing, shipbuilding, and the manufacture of vehicles, textiles, and chemicals. The community was laid ou...

oarfish
Any of a group of deep-sea bony fishes, found in warm parts of the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian oceans. Oarfish are large, up to 9 m/30 ft long, elongated, and compressed, with a fin along the back and a manelike crest behind the head. They have a small mouth, no teeth or scales, and large e...

oath
Solemn promise to tell the truth or perform some duty, combined with a declaration naming a deity or something held sacred. In English courts, witnesses normally swear to tell the truth holding a New Testament in their right hand. If a witness wishes, he or she may swear an oath on a holy book other than the New Testament by prior arrangement. Peop...

Oaxaca
(city) Click images to enlargeCapital of a state of the same name in the Sierra Madre del Sur mountain range, central Mexico; population (2005) 504,200. Industries include food processing, textiles, and handicrafts

Oasis
English pop group formed in Manchester in 1993. Although their style is based on 1960s and 70s rock and roll groups such as the Beatles and T-Rex, their confident reworking of the genre has won them much praise. The original members were brothers Liam (1972– ) (vocals) and Noel Gallagher (1967– ) (guitar and vocals), guitari...

obsidian
Black or dark-coloured glassy volcanic rock, chemically similar to granite, but formed by cooling rapidly on the Earth's surface at low pressure. The glassy texture is the result of rapid cooling, which inhibits the growth of crystals. Obsidian was valued by the early civilizations of Mexico for making sharp-edged tools and ceremonial s...

Obote,
(Apollo) Ugandan politician, prime minister 1962–66, and president 1966–71 and 1980–85. After forming the Uganda People's Congress (UPC) in 1959, he led the independence movement from 1961. As prime minister, his rule became increasingly authoritarian, and in 1966 he suspend...

oboe
Double-reed woodwind instrument with a conical bore and moderately flared bell, descended from the shawm. It is one of the four instruments that make up the woodwind section of the orchestra. The oboe was developed by the Hotteterre family of instrument makers in about 1700 and was played in the ...

obi
Form of witchcraft practised in the West Indies. It combines elements of Christianity and African religions, such as snake worship

obesity
Condition of being significantly and unhealthily overweight. The body mass index (BMI) is commonly used to define obesity. People with a BMI between 25 and 30 are described as overweight, while those with a BMI over 30 count as obese. Obesity increases susceptibility to disease, strains the vital organs, and reduces life expectancy; it is usual...

Oberon
In folklore, king of the elves or fairies and, according to the 13th-century French romance Huon of Bordeaux, an illegitimate son of Julius Caesar. Shakespeare used the character in A Midsummer Night's Dream. Oberon's name was taken as the title of a masque by Ben Jonson in 1616, an epic by Christop...

OBE
Abbreviation for Officer of the Order of the British Empire, a British honour

Oberammergau
Village in Bavaria, Germany, 72 km/45 mi southwest of Munich; population (1994) 5,300. A Christian passion play has been performed here every ten years since 1634 (except during the world wars) to commemorate the ending of the Black Death plague

Ob
Major river in Asian Russia, flowing 3,380 km/2,100 mi from the Altai Mountains through the western Siberian Plain to the Gulf of Ob in the Kara Sea (an inlet of the Arctic Ocean). With its main tributary, the Irtysh, the Ob is 5,600 km/3,480 mi long, and drains a total area of 2,990,000 sq km/1,150,000 sq mi. Although frozen for half t...

observatory
Site or facility for observing astronomical or meteorological phenomena. The modern observatory dates from the invention of the telescope. Observatories may be ground-based, carried on aircraft, or sent into orbit as satellites, in space stations, and on the space shuttle. The pre-telescopic observatory built on the island of Hven (now Ven)...

obsession
Persistently intruding thought, emotion, or impulse, often recognized by the sufferer as irrational, but nevertheless causing distress. It may be a brooding on destiny or death, or chronic doubts interfering with everyday life (such as fearing the gas is not turned off and repeatedly checking), or an impulse leading to repetitive action, such as co...

obstetrics
Medical speciality concerned with the management of pregnancy, childbirth, and the immediate postnatal period

obscenity law
Law established by the Obscene Publications Act 1959 prohibiting the publishing of any material that tends to deprave or corrupt. In Britain, obscene material can be, for example, pornographic or violent, or can encourage drug taking. Publishing includes distribution, sale, and hiring of the material. There is a defence in support of the public goo...

object-oriented programming
Computer programming based on objects, in which each object has its own program code and data and can interact with other objects. Data items are closely linked to the procedures that operate on them. For example, a circle on the screen might be an object: it has data, such as a centre point and a radius, as well as procedures for moving it, er...

obelisk
Click images to enlargeTall, tapering column of stone, much used in ancient Egyptian and Roman architecture. Examples are Cleopatra's Needles (1475 BC), one of which is in London, another in New York

object
(grammar) In grammar, the recipient of the action of the verb in a sentence. The object can be a noun, a pronoun, a noun phrase, or a noun clause. Transitive verbs take a direct object and with some verbs there may also be an indirect object or an equivalent complement

obsessive-compulsive disorder
In psychiatry, anxiety disorder that manifests itself in the need to check constantly that certain acts have been performed `correctly`. Sufferers may, for example, feel compelled to wash themselves repeatedly or return home again and again to check that doors have been locked and appliances switched off. They may also hoard certain objec...

obituary
Notice of a death, usually in the form of a short biography of the deceased. Often printed in newspapers, an obituary is generally written to celebrate the life of a famous or influential person

oblique projection
Three-dimensional drawing, drawn at either 30° or 45° to the horizontal. The 30° oblique has measurements along oblique lines that are half scale. The 45° oblique drawing has its oblique line measurements at full scale

object
(computing) In computing, an item created on a page in desktop publishing, Web publishing, and also in many office applications. Each object can have its attributes defined, to adjust layering, border style, transparency, etc

October Revolution
Second stage of the Russian Revolution 1917, when, on the night of 24 October (6 November in the Western calendar), the Bolshevik forces under Trotsky, and on orders from Lenin, seized the Winter Palace and arrested members of the Provisional Government. The following day the Second All-Russian C...

Octavian
Original name of Augustus, the first Roman emperor

Oceania
The groups of islands in the southern and central Pacific Ocean, comprising all those intervening between the southeastern shores of Asia and the western shores of America

ocean
Great mass of salt water. Geographically speaking three oceans exist – the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific – to which the Arctic is often added. They cover approximately 70% or 363,000,000 sq km/140,000,000 sq mi of the total surface area of the Earth. According to figures released in...

Occam, William of
English philosopher and scholastic logician who revived the fundamentals of nominalism. As a Franciscan monk he defended evangelical poverty against Pope John XXII, becoming known as the Invincible Doctor. He was imprisoned in Avignon, France, on charges of heresy in 1328 but escaped to Munich, Germany, where he died. The principle of reducing assu...

octopus
Click images to enlargeSoft-bodied sea animal with a round or oval body and eight slender arms (tentacles) in a ring surrounding its mouth. They are solitary creatures, living alone in rocky dens. They feed on crabs and other small animals. There are about 50 different species of octopus living in all the oceans of th...

ocelot
Wild cat of the southwestern USA, Mexico, and Central and South America. It is up to 1 m/3 ft long, with a 45 cm/1.5 ft tail, weighs about 18 kg/40 lb, and has a pale yellowish coat marked with horizontal stripes and blotches. As a result of being hunted for its fur, it is close to extinc...

ocean trench
Submarine valley. Ocean trenches are characterized by the presence of a volcanic arc on the concave side of the trench. Trenches are now known to be related to subduction zones, places where a plate of oceanic lithosphere dives beneath another plate of either oceanic or continental lithosphere. Ocean...

Octobrists
Group of Russian liberal constitutional politicians who accepted the reforming October Manifesto instituted by Tsar Nicholas II after the 1905 revolution and rejected more radical reforms

oceanography
Study of the oceans. Its subdivisions deal with each ocean's extent and depth, the water's evolution and composition, its physics and chemistry, the bottom topography, currents and wind, tidal ranges, biology, and the various aspects of human use. Computer simulations are widely used in ocean...

octane rating
Numerical classification of petroleum fuels indicating their combustion characteristics. The efficient running of an internal combustion engine depends on the ignition of a petrol–air mixture at the correct time during the cycle of the engine. Higher-rated petrol burns faster than lower-rated fuels. The use of the correct grade must be...

octave
In music, a span of eight notes as measured on the white notes of a piano keyboard. It corresponds to the consonance of first and second harmonics

octet rule
In chemistry, rule stating that elements combine in a way that gives them the electronic structure of the nearest noble gas (rare gas). The joining together of elements to form compounds is called bonding. All the noble gases except helium have eight electrons in their outermost shell, hence the term octet

occupation
In law, the physical possession and control of land. In the UK, under the Land Registration Act 1925, the rights of a person in actual occupation may be an overriding interest binding a purchaser of registered land, unless the rights are disclosed on inquiry

ocean current
Fast-flowing body of seawater forced by the wind or by variations in water density (as a result of temperature or salinity variations) between two areas. Ocean currents are partly responsible for transferring heat from the Equator to the poles and thereby evening out the global heat imbalance

Ockham, William
English philosopher; see Occam

octagon
Polygon with eight sides. A regular octagon has all eight sides of equal length, and all eight angles of equal size, 135°

Ocean Drilling Program
Research project initiated in the USA to sample the rocks of the ocean crust. Initially under the direction of Scripps Institution of Oceanography, the project was planned and administered by the Joint Oceanographic Institutions for Deep Earth Sampling (JOIDES). The operation became international in 1975, when Britain, France, West Germany, Japan, ...

Oceanic art
Art of the native peoples of Australia and the South Pacific islands, including New Guinea and New Zealand. Covering a wide geographical area, Oceanic art is extremely diverse in style and technique. Artefacts were not considered `art` by their creators, but were an integral part of the religious and social ceremony of everyday island lif...

occult
Vague term describing a wide range of activities connected with the supernatural, from seances to black magic. The term has come to have largely sinister overtones and an association with Satanism and witchcraft

Odin
Chief god of Norse mythology, god of war, and the source of wisdom. A sky god, he lived in Asgard at the top of the world-tree Yggdrasil. From the Valkyries, his divine maidens, he received the souls of half those heroes slain in battle, feasting with them in his great hall Valhalla; the remainder were feasted by Freya. His son was Thor, go...

Odysseus
Chief character of Homer's Odyssey, king of the island of Ithaca (modern Thiaki or Levkas); he is also mentioned in the Iliad as one of the leaders of the Greek forces at the siege of Troy. Odysseus was distinguished among Greek leaders for his cleverness and cunning. He appears in other later tragedies...

Oder
European river flowing north from the Czech Republic to the Baltic Sea (the Neisse River is a tributary); length 885 km/550 mi

Odessa
(Ukraine) Principal seaport of Ukraine, on the Black Sea, and capital of the Odessa region (oblast); population (2001) 1,029,000. Odessa is a commercial port, naval base, and tourist resort. The principal industries here are shipbuilding, fishing, steelmaking, and food processing. Products...

ode
Lyric poem with complex rules of structure. Odes originated in ancient Greece, where they were chanted to a musical accompaniment. Classical writers of odes include Sappho, Pindar, Horace, and Catullus. English poets who adopted the form include Edmund Spenser, John Milton, John Dryden, and John Keats

Odra
Polish name for the Oder, a European river flowing north from the Czech Republic

oesophagus
Muscular tube through which food travels from the mouth to the stomach. The human oesophagus is about 23 cm/9 in long. It extends downwards from the pharynx, immediately behind the windpipe. It is lined with a mucous membrane made of epithelial cells (see epithelium), which secretes lubricant flu...

Oedipus complex
In psychology, the unconscious antagonism of a son to his father, whom he sees as a rival for his mother's affection. For a girl antagonistic to her mother as a rival for her father's affection, the term is Electra complex. The terms were coined by Sigmund Freud. Freud saw this as a universal part of childhood development, which in most chi...

Oedipus
In Greek mythology, king of Thebes who unwittingly killed his father, Laius, and married his mother, Jocasta, in fulfilment of a prophecy. When he learned what he had done, he put out his eyes. His story was dramatized by the Greek tragedian Sophocles. Left to die at birth because Laius had been warned by an oracle that his son would kill him, Oedi...

oedema
Any abnormal accumulation of fluid in tissues or cavities of the body; waterlogging of the tissues due to excessive loss of plasma through the capillary walls. It may be generalized (the condition once known as dropsy) or confined to one area, such as the ankles. Oedema may be mechanical – the result of obstructed veins or heart failure &#...

oestrus
In mammals, the period during a female's reproductive cycle (also known as the oestrus cycle or menstrual cycle) when mating is most likely to occur. It usually coincides with ovulation, when egg cells are released from the ovary

OECD
Abbreviation for Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development

oestrogen
Any of a group of hormones produced by the ovaries of vertebrates; the term is also used for various synthetic hormones that mimic their effects. The principal oestrogen in mammals is oestradiol. Oestrogens control female sexual development, promote the growth of female secondary sexual characteristics at puberty, stimulate egg (ovum) productio...

OE
Abbreviation for Old English; see English language