Copy of `Talk Talk - Communication terms`

The wordlist doesn't exist anymore, or, the website doesn't exist anymore. On this page you can find a copy of the original information. The information may have been taken offline because it is outdated.


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


spittle
Alternative name for saliva and cuckoo spit

specific latent heat
Heat that changes the physical state of a unit mass (one kilogram) of a substance without causing any temperature change. The specific latent heat of fusion of a solid substance is the heat required to change one kilogram of it from solid to liquid without any temperature change. The specific latent heat of vaporization of a liquid substance is the...

speed–time graph
Graph used to describe the motion of a body by illustrating how its speed or velocity changes with time. The gradient of the graph gives the object's acceleration. If the gradient is zero (the graph is horizontal) then the body is moving with constant speed or uniform velocity (the acceleration i...

spinal tap
Another term for lumbar puncture, a medical test

speed
(physics) Rate at which an object moves, or how fast an object moves. The average speed v of an object may be calculated by dividing the distance s it has travelled by the time t taken to do so, and may be expressed as: v<...

spiritual healing
Transmission of energy from or through a healer, who may practise hand healing or absent healing through prayer or meditation. In religions worldwide, from shamanism to latter-day charismatic Christianity, healing powers have been attributed to gifted individuals, and sometimes to particular locations (Delphi, Lourdes) or objects (religious rel...

Speer, Albert
German architect and minister in the Nazi government during World War II. He was appointed Hitler's architect and, like his counterparts in Fascist Italy, chose an overblown classicism to glorify the state, for example, his plan for the Berlin and Nürnberg Party Congress Grounds in 1934. He built the New Reich Chancellery, Berlin, 1938...

spin
In physics, the intrinsic angular momentum of a subatomic particle, nucleus, atom, or molecule, which continues to exist even when the particle comes to rest. A particle in a specific energy state has a particular spin, just as it has a particular electric charge and mass. According to quantum theory, this is restricted to discrete and indivisible ...

spinifex
Spiny grass chiefly found in Australia, growing on the coastal sand dunes. It is often planted to bind sand along the seashore. The term also refers to porcupine grass, any of a group of spiny-leaved, tussock-forming grasses of inland Australia. (Genus Spinifex; porcupine grass genus Triodia.)

spontaneous combustion
Burning that is not initiated by the direct application of an external source of heat. A number of materials and chemicals, such as hay and sodium chlorate, can react with their surroundings, usually by oxidation, to produce so much internal heat that combustion results. Special precautions must be taken for the storage and handling of substances t...

sphere of influence
The area surrounding a settlement or service (for example a leisure complex) that is affected by the activities of that settlement or service. The sphere of influence may be mapped by looking at the catchment areas of various services or by considering local-newspaper circulation, delivery areas, and public-transport destinations. All settl...

sphincter
Ring of muscle, such as is found at various points in the alimentary canal, that contracts and relaxes to open and close the canal and control the movement of food. The pyloric sphincter, at the base of the stomach, controls the release of the gastric contents into the duodenum. After release the sphincter contracts, closing off the stomach. The ex...

sphere
Perfectly round object with all points on its surface the same distance from the centre. This distance is the radius of the sphere. For a sphere of radius r, the volume V = 4/3πr3 and the surface area
spider plant
African plant belonging to the lily family. Two species (C. comosum and C. elatum) are popular house plants. They have long, narrow, variegated leaves and produce flowering shoots from which the new plants grow, hanging below the main plant. The flowers are small and white. Spider plants absorb toxins from the ...

spiritual
Religious song developed by slaves in the USA. The forerunner of gospel music, the spiritual was an 18th- and 19th-century hymn joined to the old African pentatonic (five-note) scale. `Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen` and `Deep River` are examples. White folk hymns and religious ballads are also called spiritu...

springtail
Small wingless insect. The maximum size is 6 mm/0.2 in in length. Springtails are extremely widespread and can be found in soil, decaying vegetable matter, under the bark of trees, in ant and termite nests, and on the surface of fresh water. There are about 1,500 species of springtail and some species are, unusually for insects, marine. Springt...

speaking
Communication skill that involves the formation and pronouncement of words in a coherent fashion. The skill of speaking is developed from infancy and is essential to our everyday lives, our careers, and our personal relationships. An experienced speaker will adapt language to the intended audience and purpose. A formal debate requires more sophist...

spraycan art
Creative development of graffiti (drawings on public surfaces). Spraycan art developed in the subways of New York, USA, in the 1970s and 1980s. Large murals are `painted` reflecting inner-city life, often in the style of a comic strip. In the USA, spraycan-art memorials are commonly created in remembrance of those who have died in...

spray paint
Type of fabric paint used to decorate and colour fabric. Paint or dye is applied to fabric using a diffuser or airbrush. Spraying produces subtle variations and gradations in colour, which leads many textiles artists to use the technique to colour backgrounds for their work. Using stencils, spray painting can be a successful technique. Decorative p...

squirrel
Rodent of the family Sciuridae. Squirrels are found worldwide except for Australia, Madagascar, and polar regions. Some are tree dwellers; these generally have bushy tails, and some, with membranes between their legs, are called flying squirrels. Others are terrestrial, generally burrowing forms ...

squill
Bulb-forming perennial plant belonging to the lily family, found growing in dry places near the sea in Western Europe. Cultivated species usually bear blue flowers, either singly or in clusters, at the top of the stem. (Genus Scilla, family Liliaceae.)

square root
Number that when it is squared (multiplied by itself) equals a given number. For example, the square root of 25 (written as √25) is +5 or -5. This is because +5 × +5 = 25, and -5 × -5 = 25. A square root can be written as 1/2. For example, = &#...

square
Click images to enlargeIn geometry, a quadrilateral (four-sided) plane figure with all sides equal and each angle a right angle. Its diagonals bisect each other at right angles. The area A of a square is the length l of one side multiplied by itself (A = <...

squatter
Person illegally occupying someone else's property. Squatters are often urban homeless people who make use of vacant houses. Squatters commit a criminal offence if they take over property where there is a `residential occupier`; for example, by moving in while the owner is on holiday

sq
Abbreviation for square (measure)

squash
Racket-and-ball game usually played by two people on an enclosed court, derived from rackets. Squash became a popular sport in the 1970s and later gained competitive status. There are two forms of squash: the American form, which is played in North and some South American countries, and the English, which is played mainly in Europe and ...

squint
Common condition in which one eye deviates in any direction. A squint may be convergent (with the bad eye turned inwards), divergent (outwards), or, in rare cases, vertical. A convergent squint is also called cross-eye. There are two types of squint: paralytic, arising from disease or damage involving the extraocular muscles or their nerve ...

SQL
High-level computer language designed for use with relational databases. Although it can be used by programmers in the same way as other languages, it is often used as a means for programs to communicate with each other. Typically, one program (called the `client`) uses SQL to request data from a database `server`. Although ...

Srinagar
Summer capital of the state of Jammu and Kashmir, India, on the Jhelum River, 1,600 m/5,250 ft above sea level; population (2001) 894,900. It is a beautiful resort, intersected by waterways and wooden bridges, with numerous mosques, palaces, a fortress, and public gardens. Lake Dal to the northeast is an important tourist centre. It has car...

Sri Lanka
Click images to enlargeIsland in the Indian Ocean, off the southeast coast of India. Government Sri Lanka is a multiparty democracy, with a president and prime minister `dual executive`, similar to that in France. Under its 1978 constitution, the head of state, chief executive and commander-in-chief of t...

SRAM
Computer memory device in the form of a silicon chip used to provide immediate-access memory. SRAM is faster but more expensive than DRAM (dynamic random-access memory), and does not require to be refreshed as long as power is being supplied

sruti
Hindu scriptures `that have been heard`. The sruti have been `heard` directly from God, and have been passed on by word of mouth before being written down in Sanskrit, the classical language of India. They include the four Vedas, the Upanishads, and the Brahmanas

Srbija
Serbo-Croat for Serbia

sr
In physics, symbol for steradian, the SI unit of solid angle. For example, a sphere subtends a solid angle of 4π steradians at its centre

SS
Nazi elite corps established 1925. Under Himmler its 500,000 membership included the full-time Waffen-SS (armed SS), which fought in World War II, and spare-time members. The SS performed state police duties and was brutal in its treatment of the Jews and others in the concentration camps and occupied territories. It was condemned as an...

SSSI
Abbreviation for Site of Special Scientific Interest

Stromboli
Italian island in the Tyrrhenian Sea, one of the Lipari Islands; area 12 sq km/5 sq mi. It has an active volcano, 926 m/3,039 ft high. The island produces Malmsey wine and capers, partly as a result of the fertile soil the lava has produced

string instrument
Musical instrument that produces a sound when a stretched string is made to vibrate. Today the strings are made of gut, metal, and nylon or Pearlon (a plastic). Types of string instruments include: bowed, the violin family and viol family; plucked, the guitar, ukulele, lute, sitar, harp, banjo, and lyre; plucked mechanically, the harpsi...

Strindberg,
(Johan) Swedish dramatist and novelist. His plays are in a variety of styles including historical dramas, symbolic dramas (the two-part Dödsdansen/The Dance of Death (1901)), and `chamber plays` such as Spöksonaten/The Ghost [Spoo...

strike
(industrial) Stoppage of work by employees, often as members of a trade union, to obtain or resist change in wages, hours, or conditions. A lockout is a weapon of an employer to thwart or enforce such change by preventing employees from working. Another measure is work to rule, when production...

streptomycin
Antibiotic drug discovered in 1944, active against a wide range of bacterial infections. Streptomycin is derived from a soil bacterium Streptomyces griseus or synthesized

Streep, Meryl
US actor. Considered one of the leading character actors of the 1980s and 90s, she has portrayed a wide range of roles with emotionally dramatic intensity, for example a conflicted mother in Kramer vs Kramer (1979, Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress), a Polish Holocaust survivor in Sophie's Choice (1...

Strauss, Richard
(Georg) German composer and conductor. He followed the German Romantic tradition but had a strongly personal style, characterized by his bold, colourful orchestration. He first wrote tone poems such as Don Juan (1889), Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks ...

Stratford-upon-Avon
Market town on the River Avon, in Warwickshire, England, 35 km/22 mi southeast of Birmingham; population (2001) 104,800. It is the birthplace of William Shakespeare and has the Royal Shakespeare Theatre (1932), the Swan Theatre (1986), and The Other Place (1991). Tourism is important, with over 3 million visitors a year. Other industries in...

Strasbourg
Administrative centre of the Bas-Rhin département and of Alsace region, northeast France, situated near the German border on the River Ill, 3 km/1.9 mi west of the Rhine near its confluence with the Rhine–Rhône and Rhine and Marne canals; population (1999 est) 264,000; Strasbourg-Kehl agglomerat...

Straits Settlements
Former province of the East India Company 1826–58, a British crown colony 1867–1946; it comprised Singapore, Malacca (now Melaka), Penang, Cocos Islands, Christmas Island, and Labuan

Strasberg, Lee
US actor and artistic director of the Actors Studio from 1948. He developed Method acting from Stanislavsky's system; pupils have included Marlon Brando, Paul Newman, Julie Harris, Kim Hunter, Geraldine Page, Al Pacino, and Robert De Niro

Stradivari, Antonio
Italian stringed instrument maker, generally considered the greatest of all violin makers. He produced more than 1,100 instruments from his family workshops, over 600 of which survive; they have achieved the status (and sale-room prices) of works of art

Strachey,
(Giles) English critic and biographer. He was a member of the Bloomsbury Group of writers and artists. His Landmarks in French Literature was written in 1912. The mocking and witty treatment of Cardinal Manning, Florence Nightingale, Thomas Arnold, and General Gordon in <...

Stoppard, Tom
Czech-born British dramatist. His works use wit and wordplay to explore logical and philosophical ideas. He enjoyed wide success with the absurdist Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead (1967), based on two minor characters from Shakespeare's Hamlet, and The Real Thing (1982), a play ...

Stopes, Marie Charlotte Carmichael
Scottish birth-control campaigner. With her second husband H V Roe (1878–1949), an aircraft manufacturer, she founded Britain's first birth-control clinic in London in 1921. In her best-selling manual Married Love (1918) she urged women to enjoy sexual intercourse within their marriage, a revolutionary view f...

Stonehenge
Megalithic monument on Salisbury Plain, 3 km/1.9 mi west of Amesbury in Wiltshire, England. The site developed over various periods from a simple henge (earthwork circle and ditch), dating from about 3000 BC, to a complex stone structure, from about 2100 BC, which included a circle of 30 upright stones, their tops linked by lintel stones to for...

Stone Age
The developmental stage of humans in prehistory before the use of metals, when tools and weapons were made chiefly of stone, especially flint. The Stone Age is subdivided into the Old or Palaeolithic, when flint implements were simply chipped into shape; the Middle or Mesolithic; and the New or Neolithic, when implements were ground and pol...

Stoke-on-Trent
City and administrative centre of Stoke-on-Trent unitary authority in central England, on the River Trent, 48 km/30 mi north of Wolverhampton; population (2001) 159,250. The city is situated in the heart of the Potteries, a major ceramic centre, and is the largest clayware producer in the world. Other industries include the manufact...

Stoicism
Greek school of philosophy, founded about 300 BC by Zeno of Citium. The Stoics were pantheistic materialists who believed that happiness lay in accepting the law of the universe. They emphasized human brotherhood, denounced slavery, and were internationalist. The name is derived from the porch on which Zeno taught. In the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC, ...

Stockton-on-Tees
(town) Town, port, and administrative headquarters of Stockton-on-Tees metropolitan borough, on the River Tees, 5 km/3 mi west of Middlesbrough, northeast England; population (2001) 80,100. There are ship-repairing, steel, and chemical industries. It was the starting point ...

Stockport
Town in Greater Manchester, northwest England, 10 km/6 mi southeast of Manchester; population (2001) 136,100. The rivers Tame and Goyt join here to form the Mersey. Formerly important in the textile industry, Stockport now manufactures electrical machinery, paper, plastics, hats, and some cotton textiles; other industries include electr...

Stockholm
(city) Click images to enlargeCapital and industrial port of Sweden; population (2005 est) 1,252,000. It is built on a number of islands. Industries include engineering, brewing, electrical goods, paper, textiles, and pottery. A network of bridge...

Stockhausen, Karlheinz
German composer of avant-garde music. He explored new musical sounds and compositional techniques from the 1950s. His major works include Gesang der Jünglinge/Song of the Youths (1956), Kontakte (1960) (electronic music), and Sirius (1977). From 1977 all his works were part of &l...

Stirling
(city) City and administrative headquarters of Stirling unitary authority, Scotland, on the River Forth, 43 km/27 mi northeast of Glasgow; population (2001) 32,700. Industries include the manufacture of agricultural machinery, textiles, chemicals, and carpets. The Stirling skyline is n...

Stirling, James Frazer
(architect) Scottish architect. He was possibly the most influential of his generation. While in partnership with James Gowan (1924– ), he designed an influential housing estate at Ham Common, Richmond (1958), and the Leicester University Engineering Building (1959–63) in a cons...

Stilwell, Joseph Warren
US general in World War II. In 1942 he became US military representative in China, when he commanded the Chinese forces cooperating with the British (with whom he quarrelled) in Burma (now Myanmar). He later commanded all US forces in China, Burma, and India until recalled to the USA in 1944 after differences over nationalist policy with the Guomin...

Stijl, De
Influential movement in art, architecture, and design founded in 1917 in the Netherlands. The focus of the movement was an attempt to simplify art to pure abstraction; form was reduced to rectangles and other geometric shapes, while colour was limited to the primary colours and black and white. The De Stijl group wanted to bring art and design ...

Stevenson, Robert Louis Balfour
Scottish novelist and poet. He wrote the adventure stories Treasure Island (1883), Kidnapped (1886), and The Master of Ballantrae (1889), notable for their characterization as well as their action. He was a master also of shorter fiction such as The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr H...

Stevens, Wallace
US poet. An insurance company executive, he was not recognized as a major poet until late in life. His volumes of poems include Harmonium (1923), The Man with the Blue Guitar (1937), and Transport to Summer (1947). The Necessary Angel (1951) is a collection of essays. An el...

Stephen, St
The first Christian martyr; he was stoned to death. Feast day 26 December

Stephen
King of England from 1135. A grandson of William the Conqueror, he was elected king in 1135, although he had previously recognized Henry I's daughter Matilda as heiress to the throne. Matilda landed in England in 1139, and civil war disrupted the country until 1153, when Stephen acknowledged Matilda's son, Henry II, as his own heir. Stephen...

Stendhal
French novelist. His novels Le Rouge et le Noir/The Red and the Black (1830) and La Chartreuse de Parme/The Charterhouse of Parma (1839) were pioneering works in their treatment of disguise and hypocrisy and outstanding for their psychological analysis; a review of the latter by fellow novelist Balz...

Steiner, Rudolf
Austrian philosopher, occultist, and educationalist. He formulated his own mystic and spiritual teaching, which he called anthroposophy. This rejected materialism and aimed to develop the whole human being, intellectually, socially, and, above all, spiritually. A number of Steiner schools follow a curriculum laid down by him with a strong emphasis ...

Steinbeck, John Ernst
US novelist. His realist novels, such as In Dubious Battle (1936), Of Mice and Men (1937), and The Grapes of Wrath (1939; Pulitzer Prize; filmed 1940), portray agricultural life in his native California, where migrant farm labourers from the Oklahoma dust bowl struggled to survive. He...

Stein, Gertrude
US writer. She influenced authors Ernest Hemingway, Sherwood Anderson, and F Scott Fitzgerald with her radical prose style. Drawing on the stream-of-consciousness psychology of William James and on the geometry of Cézanne and the cubist painters in Paris, she evolved a `continuous present` style made up of constant repetition...

Steele, Richard
Irish essayist, playwright, and politician. Born in Dublin, he entered the Life Guards, and then settled in London. He founded the journal The Tatler (1709–11), in which Joseph Addison collaborated. They continued their joint work in the Spectator (1711–12), also founded by Steele, and The Gu...

Stansted
London's third international airport, in Essex, southeast England

Stauffenberg, Claus von
German colonel in World War II who, in a conspiracy to assassinate Hitler (the July Plot), planted a bomb in the dictator's headquarters conference room in the Wolf's Lair at Rastenburg, East Prussia, on 20 July 1944. Hitler was merely injured, and Stauffenberg and 200 others were later executed by the Nazi regime

Stanley
(town) Town on eastern Falkland, capital of the Falkland Islands; population (1991) 1,557. After changing its name only once between 1843 and 1982, it was renamed five times in the space of six weeks during the Falklands War April–June 1982

Stanley, Henry Morton
Welsh-born US explorer and journalist who made four expeditions to Africa. He and David Livingstone met at Ujiji in 1871 and explored Lake Tanganyika. He traced the course of the Congo River to the sea 1874–77, established the Congo Free State (Democratic Republic of Congo) 1879–84, and charted much of the interior 1887–89. GCB 1...

Stalingrad
Former name (1925–61) of the Russian city of Volgograd

Stalin, Joseph
Click images to enlargeSoviet politician. A member of the October Revolution committee of 1917, Stalin became general secretary of the Communist Party in 1922. After Lenin's death in 1924, Stalin sought to create `socialism in one country` and clashed with Trotsky, who denied the possibility of socialism ins...

Stephenson, George
English engineer. He built the first successful steam locomotive. He also invented a safety lamp independently of Humphrey Davy in 1815. He was appointed engineer of the Stockton and Darlington Railway, the world's first public railway, in 1821, and of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway in 1826...

strawberry
Low-growing perennial plant widely cultivated for its red, fleshy fruits, which are rich in vitamin C. Commercial cultivated forms bear one crop of fruit in summer, with the berries resting on a bed of straw to protect them from the damp soil, and multiply by runners. The flowers are normally whi...

star cluster
Group of related stars, usually held together by gravity. Members of a star cluster are thought to form together from one large cloud of gas in space. Open clusters such as the Pleiades contain from a dozen to many hundreds of young stars, loosely scattered over several light years. Globular clusters are larger and much more densely packed, contain...

strychnine
Bitter-tasting, poisonous alkaloid. It is a poison that causes violent muscular spasms, and is usually obtained by powdering the seeds of plants of the genus Strychnos (for example S. nux vomica). Curare is a related drug

stearic acid
Saturated long-chain fatty acid, soluble in alcohol and ether but not in water. It is found in many fats and oils, and is used to make soap and candles and as a lubricant. The salts of stearic acid are called stearates

sterol
Any of a group of solid, cyclic, unsaturated alcohols, with a complex structure that includes four carbon rings; cholesterol is an example. Steroids are derived from sterols

steam
Dry, invisible gas formed by vaporizing water. The visible cloud that normally forms in the air when water is vaporized is due to minute suspended water particles. Steam is widely used in chemical and other industrial processes and for the generation of power

starch
Widely distributed, high-molecular-mass carbohydrate, produced by plants as a food store; main dietary sources are cereals, legumes, and tubers, including potatoes. It consists of varying proportions of two glucose polymers (polysaccharides): straight-chain (amylose) and branched (amylopectin) molecules. Purified starch is a whi...

St Helens, Mount
Volcanic mountain in Skamania County, Washington. It is located on the western flank of the Cascade Range, 56 km/35 mi east of Kelso, in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest. Dormant since 1857, it erupted on 18 May 1980, devastating an area of 600 sq km/230 sq mi, and killing 57 people; its height was reduced from 2,950 m/9,682 ft t...

sturgeon
Large, primitive, bony fish with five rows of bony plates and chin barbels used for exploring the bottom of the water for prey. Sturgeons take 6–25 years to reach sexual maturity. The population in the Caspian Sea is threatened by pollution and intensive fishing for caviar; there was a 75% decline in the catch 1984–94 and stocks f...

stonefish
Any of a family (Synanceiidae) of tropical marine bony fishes with venomous spines and bodies resembling encrusted rocks

stork
Any of the 17 species of the Ciconiidae, a family of long-legged, long-necked wading birds with long, powerful wings, and long conical bills used for spearing prey. Some species grow up to 1.5 m/5 ft tall. Species Species include the Eurasian white stork Ciconia ciconia, which is encouraged to build on rooftops as a l...

stickleback
Any fish of the family Gasterosteidae, found in marine and fresh waters of the northern hemisphere. It has a long body that can grow to 18 cm/7 in. The spines along a stickleback's back take the place of the first dorsal fin, and can be raised to make the fish difficult to eat for predators. After the eggs have been laid the female takes no...

stick insect
Insect of the order Phasmida, closely resembling a stick or twig. The eggs mimic plant seeds. Many species are wingless. The longest reach a length of 30 cm/1 ft. Fossilized eggs were identified in 1995, and are thought to be around 44 million years old

starling
Any member of a large widespread Old World family (Sturnidae) of chunky, dark, generally gregarious birds of the order Passeriformes. The European starling Sturnus vulgaris, common in northern Eurasia, has been naturalized in North America from the late 19th century. The black, speckled plumage is glossed with green and purple. T...

starfish
Any echinoderm of the subclass Asteroidea with arms radiating from a central body. Usually there are five arms, but some species have more. They are covered with spines and small pincerlike organs. There are also a number of small tubular processes on the skin surface that assist in locomotion and re...

St Bernard
Breed of large, heavily built dog, named after the monks of Grand St Bernard Hospice, Switzerland, who kept them for finding lost travellers in the Alps and to act as guides. They are 70 cm/30 in high at the shoulder, and weigh about 70 kg/154 lb. They have pendulous ears and lips, large feet, and drooping lower eyelids. They are usually or...

stomach
Click images to enlargeOrgan that forms the first cavity in the digestive system of animals. In mammals it is a bag of muscle situated just below the diaphragm. Food enters it from the oesophagus, is digested by the acid and enzymes secreted by the stomach lining. The wall of the stomach contracts to mix the food with the...

stalactite and stalagmite
Cave structures formed by the deposition of calcite dissolved in ground water. Stalactites grow downwards from the roofs or walls and can be icicle-shaped, straw-shaped, curtain-shaped, or formed as terraces. Stalagmites grow upwards from the cave floor and can be conical, fir-cone-shaped, or resemble a stack of saucers. Growing...

stratigraphy
Branch of geology that deals with sedimentary rock layers (strata) and their sequence of formation. Its basis was developed by English geologist William Smith. The basic principle of superposition establishes that upper layers or deposits accumulated later in time than the lower ones. Stratigraphy involves both the investigation of sedimentary stru...

steppe
Temperate grasslands of Europe and Asia. The term is sometimes used to refer to other temperate grasslands and semi-arid desert edges

stonecrop
Any of a group of plants belonging to the orpine family, succulent herbs with fleshy leaves and clusters of red, yellow, or white starlike flowers. Stonecrops are characteristic of dry, rocky places and some grow on walls. (Genus Sedum, family Crassulaceae.)