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


Winnipeg, Lake
Lake in southern Manitoba, Canada. It is a small remnant of the glacial lake Agassiz and Canada's third-largest lake, covering an area of 24,500 sq km/9,460 sq mi. Its waters are fed by the Red, Saskatchewan, Winnipeg, and other rivers, draining much of the Canadian prairies. Its outflow is through the River Nelson, northeastwards to Hu...

windsurfing
Water sport combining elements of surfing and sailing, first developed in the USA in 1968. The windsurfer stands on a board that is propelled and steered by means of a sail attached to a mast that is articulated at the foot. Since 1984 the sport has been included in the Olympic Games as part of the y...

Windsor, Duchess of
Title of Wallis Warfield Simpson

Windsor, Duke of
Title of Edward VIII

Witwatersrand
Economic heartland of Gauteng province, South Africa. Its reef, which stretches nearly 100 km/60 mi, produces over half the world's gold. Gold was first found here in 1853. The chief city of the region is Johannesburg. Forming a watershed between the Vaal and the Olifant rivers, the Rand comprises a series of parallel ranges which extend 10...

Widmark, Richard
US actor. He made his film debut in Kiss of Death (1947) as a psychopath. He subsequently appeared in a variety of roles, including The Alamo (1960), Madigan (1968), and Coma (1978)

Willis, Norman David
English trade union leader. A trade union official since leaving school, he was the general secretary of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) 1984–93 and president of the European TUC 1991–93. He presided over the TUC at a time of falling union membership, hostile legislation from the Conservative government, and a major review of the role and...

wind-chill factor
Estimate of how much colder it feels when a wind is blowing. It is arrived at by combining the actual temperature and wind speed and is given as a different temperature. Wind chill can be calculated in Celsius using the formula: wind chill = 0.045(5. × √V + 10.45 - 0.28V) (T - 33) + 33 where V is in the wind spee...

Williams
British racing-car manufacturing company started by Frank Williams in 1969 when he modified a Brabham BT26A. The first Williams Grand Prix car was designed by Patrick Head in 1978 and since then the team has been one of the most successful in Grand Prix racing, winning the Formula 1 Constructors' title a record-equalling nine times 1980...

Wimbledon
(tennis centre) Click images to enlargeEnglish lawn tennis centre used for international championship matches, situated in south London. There are currently 18 courts

Wien's displacement law
In physics, a law of radiation stating that the wavelength carrying the maximum energy is inversely proportional to the absolute temperature of a black body: the hotter a body is, the shorter the wavelength. It has the form λmaxT = constant, where λmax is the wavelen...

William of Malmesbury
English historian and monk. He compiled the Gesta regum/Deeds of the Kings (c.1120–40) and Historia novella, which together formed a history of England to 1142

Windscale
Former name of Sellafield, a nuclear power station in Cumbria, England

wind power
Click images to enlargePower produced from the harnessing of wind energy. The wind has long been used as a source of energy: sailing ships and windmills are ancient inventions. After the energy crisis of the 1970s wind turbines began to be used to produce electricity on a large scale

wind farm
Click images to enlargeArray of windmills or wind turbines used for generating electrical power. The world's largest wind farm at Altamont Pass, California, USA, consists of 6,000 wind turbines generating 1 TWh of electricity per year. Wind farms supply about 1.5% of California's electricity needs. To produce ...

Wiener, Norbert
US mathematician, credited with the establishment of the science of cybernetics in his book Cybernetics (1948). In mathematics, he laid the foundation of the study of stochastic processes (those dependent on random events), particularly Brownian motion

wilting
Loss of rigidity (turgor) in plants, caused by a decreasing wall pressure within the cells making up the supportive tissues. Wilting is most obvious in plants that have little or no wood

Wisconsin
Click images to enlargeState in north-central USA, one of the Great Lakes states, bordered to the south by Illinois, to the west by Iowa and Minnesota, to the north by Lake Superior and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, and to the east by Lake Michigan; area 140,662 sq km/54,310 sq mi; population (2000) 5,3...

wickerwork
Furniture or other objects made from flexible rods or shoots, usually willow, as developed from stake-frame basketry. It is made by weaving strands in and out of a wicker frame

wildlife trade
International trade in live plants and animals, and in wildlife products such as skins, horns, shells, and feathers. The trade has made some species virtually extinct, and whole ecosystems (for example, coral reefs) are threatened. Wildlife trade is to some extent regulated by CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species). Species...

withdrawal
In a military action, an orderly movement of forces in a rearward direction in order to occupy more favourable ground. It is voluntary and controlled, unlike a retreat

WIMP
(computing) In computing, another name for graphical user interface (GUI)

Wilson, Teddy
(Theodore Shaw) US bandleader and jazz pianist. He toured with Benny Goodman 1935–39 and during that period recorded in small groups with many of the best musicians of the time; some of his 1930s recordings feature the singer Billie Holiday. Wilson led a big band 1939–40 and a se...

wide area network
In computing, a network that connects computers distributed over a wide geographical area. `Dumb` terminals and microcomputers act as workstations, which connect to remote systems via a local host computer

window
In computing, a rectangular area on the screen of a graphical user interface. A window is used to display data and can be manipulated in various ways by the computer user

Winterson, Jeanette
English novelist. Her autobiographical first novel Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit (1985, televised 1990), humorously draws on her experiences growing up as an Evangelical Pentecostalist in Lancashire, and her subsequent realization of her homosexuality. Later novels include Boating for Beginners (1986),
wine, fortified
Wine that has extra alcohol added to raise its alcohol content to about 20%. Fortified wines keep well because the alcohol kills the micro-organisms that spoil natural wines. Port, which originates from Oporto in Portugal, is made by adding brandy to wine before fermentation is complete; sherry, originally made in Jerez in Spain, is a d...

Williams, Hank
US country singer, songwriter, and guitarist. He was the author of dozens of country standards and one of the originators of modern country music. His songs are characteristically mournful and blues-influenced, like `Your Cheatin' Heart` (1953), but also include the uptempo `Jambalaya` (1952) and the proto-rockabilly...

Winter King, the
Name given to Frederick V because he was king of Bohemia for one winter (1619–20)

witch doctor
Alternative name for a shaman

Windows
In computing, originally Microsoft's graphical user interface (GUI) for IBM personal computers and clones running MS-DOS. Windows has since developed into a family of operating systems that run on a wide variety of computers, from pen-operated palmtop personal digital assistants (PDAs) to large, multiprocessor computers in corporate dat...

wizard
In computing, an interactive tool developed by Microsoft that `talks` program users through a complex operation, such as creating a template or a presentation. The wizard presents the user with a series of dialog boxes asking simple questions in ordinary language, which the user answers by choosing radio buttons, checking boxes, and enter...

wire frame
In computing, method of creating three-dimensional computerized animations by drawing a series of frames showing the moving image in outline, like a moving skeleton. When the designer is satisfied with the action of the wire-frame figure, he or she adds the `skin`, superimposing textures to give the final effect

wireworm
Larva of some species of click beetle. Wireworms are considered agricultural pests as they attack the seeds of many crops

Windsor and Maidenhead
Unitary authority in southeast England, created in 1998 from part of the former county of Berkshire. Area 198 sq km/76 sq mi Towns and cities Windsor, Maidenhead (administrative headquarters) Features River Thames; Windsor Castle, royal residence originally built by William the Conqueror; Windsor Great Park, remnant of royal hunting gro...

William
(I) Click images to enlargeKing of England from 25 December 1066. He was the illegitimate son of Duke Robert the Devil whom he succeeded as Duke of Normandy in 1035. Claiming that his relative King Edward the Confessor had bequeathed him the English ...

Wiesel, Elie(zer)
Romanian-born US academic and human-rights campaigner. He was held in Buchenwald concentration camp during World War II, and assiduously documented wartime atrocities against the Jews in an effort to alert the world to the dangers of racism and violence. His novel La Nuit/Night (1956) was based on his experiences in t...

Wilkinson, Jonny
English rugby union player and England's all-time leading points scorer. He became England's youngest international for 71 years when he made his debut in March 1998 at the age of only 18 years 301 days. Wilkinson played at centre in the 1999 Five Nations Championship, but then played in his favoured position of fly-half since the 1...

Williams, Serena Jameka
US tennis player. She made her name with her surprise win over Martina Hingis in the final of the US Open in 1999, becoming the third African American to win a Grand Slam tournament. In winning the 2001 Australian Open doubles title with her sister Venus Williams, they became only the fourth pair to win the women's doubles title at all four Gra...

Wild West
Click images to enlargeName given to the period in the American West when crime and disorder posed a major problem in its newly established communities. Rapid settlement, such as that experienced during the California gold rush 1848–49 or the cow towns of the early US cattle industry, meant that many towns sprang up ...

Wisla
Polish name for the Vistula, a river in Poland

Williams, Rowan Douglas
Welsh cleric and archbishop of Canterbury from 2002. Regarded as a liberal on ethical and moral issues but a conservative on theological doctrine, he supports the ordination of women, and has an open attitude towards homosexuality within the priesthood and the laity. He also takes a liberal view of ecclesiastical remarriage for divorced people in c...

wolfram
Alternative name for tungsten

worm
Any of various elongated, limbless invertebrates belonging to several phyla. Worms include the flatworms, such as flukes and tapeworms; the roundworms or nematodes, such as the eelworm and the hookworm; the marine ribbon worms or nemerteans; and the segmented worms or annelids

woodworm
Common name for the larval stage of certain wood-boring beetles. Dead or injured trees are their natural target, but they also attack structural timber and furniture. Included are the furniture beetle Anobium punctatum, which attacks older timber; the powder-post beetle genus Lyctus, which attacks n...

woodpecker
Bird of the family Picidae, order Piciformes. They are adapted for climbing up the bark of trees, and picking out insects to eat from the crevices. The feet, though very short, are usually strong; the nails are broad and crooked and the toes placed in pairs, two forward and two backward. As an ad...

woodlouse
Crustacean of the order Isopoda. Woodlice have segmented bodies, flattened undersides, and 14 legs. The eggs are carried by the female in a pouch beneath the thorax. They often live in high densities: up to as many as 8,900 per square metre. The hatchlings, called mancas, have only 12 legs and must moult twice before gaining their final pair of...

woodcock
Either of two species of wading birds, genus Scolopax, of the family Scolopacidae, which have barred plumage and long bills, and live in wet woodland areas. They belong to the long-billed section of the snipes, order Charadriiformes

wombat
Any of a family (Vombatidae) of burrowing, herbivorous marsupials, native to Tasmania and southern Australia. They are about 1 m/3.3 ft long, heavy, with a big head, short legs and tail, and coarse fur. The two living species include the common wombat Vombatus ursinus of Tasman...

wolverine
Gulo gulo, largest land member of the weasel family (Mustelidae), found in Europe, Asia, and North America. It is stocky in build, and about 1 m/3.3 ft long. Its long, thick fur is dark brown on the back and belly and lighter on the sides. It covers food that it cannot eat with an unpleasant secretion. Destruction of habitat ...

wolf
Click images to enlargeAny of two species of large wild dogs of the genus Canis. The grey or timber wolf C. lupus, of North America and Eurasia, is highly social, measures up to 90 cm/3 ft at the shoulder, and weighs up to 45 kg/100 lb. It has been greatly reduced in numbers e...

woodmouse
Apodemus sylvaticus, rodent that lives in woodlands, hedgerows, and sometimes open fields in Britain and Europe. About 9 cm/3.5 in long, with a similar length of tail, it is yellow-brown above, white below, and has long oval ears. It is nocturnal and feeds largely on seeds, but eats a range of foods, including some insect...

wood
Hard tissue beneath the bark of many perennial plants; it is composed of water-conducting cells, or secondary xylem, and gains its hardness and strength from deposits of lignin. Hardwoods, such as oak, and softwoods, such as pine, have commercial value as structural material and for furniture. The central wood in a branch or stem is known a...

wood pulp
Wood that has been processed into a pulpy mass of fibres. Its main use is for making paper, but it is also used in making rayon and other cellulose fibres and plastics. There are two methods of making wood pulp: mechanical and chemical. In the former, debarked logs are ground with water (to prevent charring) by rotating grindstones; the woo...

World War II
Click images to enlargeWar between Germany, Italy, and Japan (the Axis powers) on one side, and Britain, the Commonwealth, France, the USA, the USSR, and China (the Allies) on the other. An estimated 55 million lives were lost (20 million of them citizens of the USSR), and 60 million people in Europe were displaced becaus...

World War I
Click images to enlargeWar between the Central European Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, and allies) on one side and the Triple Entente (Britain and the British Empire, France, and Russia) and their allies, including the USA (which entered in 1917), on the other side. An estimated 10 million lives were lost and twice...

Wordsworth, William
English poet. A leader of Romanticism, Wordsworth is best known as the poet who reawakened his readers to the beauty of nature, describing the emotions and perceptive insights which natural beauty arouses in the sensitive observer. He advocated a poetry of simple feeling and the use of the language o...

Woolf,
(Adeline) English novelist and critic. In novels such as Mrs Dalloway (1925), To the Lighthouse (1927), and The Waves (1931), she used a `stream of consciousness` tech...

Wollstonecraft, Mary
British feminist and writer. She was a member of a group of radical intellectuals called the English Jacobins. Her book A Vindication of the Rights of Women (1792) demanded equal educational opportunities for women. She married William Godwin in 1797 and died giving birth to a daughter, Mary (later Mary Shelley)

Worcestershire
Two-tier county of west central England. Herefordshire and Worcestershire existed as separate counties until 1974, when they were amalgamated to form the county of Hereford and Worcester; in 1998 this county was divided back into Worcestershire and Herefordshire, which regained their pre-...

wormwood
Any of a group of plants belonging to the daisy family and mainly found in northern temperate regions, especially the aromatic herb A. absinthium, the leaves of which are used in the alcoholic drink absinthe. Tarragon is closely related to wormwood. (Genus Artemisia, family Compositae.)

Wolf, Hugo
(Filipp Jakob) Austrian composer. He wrote more than 250 lieder (songs), including the Mörike-Lieder/Mörike Songs (1888) and the two-volume Italienisches Liederbuch/Italian Songbook (1892, 1896). Wolf brought a ...

Wolfe, James
English soldier. He served in Canada and commanded a victorious expedition against the French general Montcalm in Québec on the Plains of Abraham, during which both commanders were killed. The British victory established their supremacy over Canada. Wolfe fought at the battles of Dettingen, Falkirk, and Culloden. With the outbreak of the Seven...

Wollongong
Industrial city on the coast of New South Wales, Australia, 80 km/50 mi south of Sydney; population (2001) 228,800. Wollongong, the third-largest city in New South Wales, is the main residential and business centre of the Illawarra district. Its chief industries are steel production, tourism, fishing, dairying, and the manufacture of te...

Wolverhampton
Industrial town in West Midlands, central England, 20 km/12 mi northwest of Birmingham; population (2001) 236,600. Industries include metalworking, engineering, and the manufacture of chemicals, tyres, aircraft, bicycles, and locks and keys. Europe's first power station fuelled by waste tyres opened here in 1993. History Wolverhampton w...

women's services
The organized military use of women on a large scale, a 20th-century development. First, women replaced men in factories, on farms, and in noncombat tasks during wartime; they are now found in combat units in many countries, including the USA, Cuba, the UK, and Israel

Wood, Henry Joseph
English conductor. From 1895 until his death, he conducted the London Promenade Concerts, now named after him. He promoted a national interest in music and encouraged many young composers. As a composer he is remembered for the Fantasia on British Sea Songs (1905), which ends each Promenade season

Wookey Hole
Natural cave near Wells, Somerset, England, in which flint implements of Old Stone Age people and bones of extinct animals have been found

Woolley,
(Charles) English archaeologist. After taking part in an expedition to Nubia 1907–11, he excavated the Hittite city of Carchemish in Syria until 1914; Tell el Amarna in Egypt; Atchana (the ancient Alalakh) in the Hatay near Antioch on the Turkish-Syrian border 1935–39 and...

Wodehouse, P(elham) G(renville)
English novelist. He became a US citizen in 1955. His humorous novels and stories portray the accident-prone world of such characters as the socialite Bertie Wooster and his invaluable and impeccable manservant Jeeves, and Lord Emsworth of Blandings Castle with his prize pig, the Empress of Blandings. From 1906, Wodehouse also collaborated on t...

Woden
The foremost Anglo-Saxon god, whose Norse counterpart is Odin

Wolfe, Thomas Clayton
US novelist. He is noted for the unrestrained rhetoric and emotion of his prose style. He wrote four long and hauntingly powerful autobiographical novels, mostly of the South: Look Homeward, Angel (1929), Of Time and the River (1935), The Web and the Rock (1939), and You Can'...

Wolsey, Thomas
English cleric and politician. In Henry VIII's service from 1509, he became archbishop of York in 1514, cardinal and lord chancellor in 1515, and began the dissolution of the monasteries. His reluctance to further Henry's divorce from Catherine of Aragon led to his downfall in 1529. He was charged with high treason in 1530 but died before b...

women's movement
Click images to enlargeCampaign for the rights and emancipation (freedom) of women, including social, political, and economic equality with men. Early campaigners of the 17th–19th centuries fought for women's rights to own property, to have access to higher education, and to vote. The suffragists campaigned for w...

woodcarving
Art form practised in many parts of the world since prehistoric times: for example, the northwestern Pacific coast of North America, in the form of totem poles, and West Africa, where there is a long tradition of woodcarving, notably in Nigeria. Woodcarvings survive less often than sculpture in stone or metal because of the comparative fragilit...

Woolworth, Frank Winfield
US entrepreneur. He opened his first successful `five and dime` store in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, in 1879, and, together with his brother C S Woolworth (1856–1947), built up a chain of similar stores throughout the USA, Canada, the UK, and Europe

Worcester
(UK) Cathedral city in west central England on the River Severn, and administrative headquarters of the county of Worcestershire, on the River Severn, 35 km/22 mi southwest of Birmingham; population (2001) 93,350. Industries include the manufacture of shoes, Worcestershire sauce, and R...

Wounded Knee
Site on the Oglala Sioux Reservation, South Dakota, USA, of a confrontation between the US Army and American Indians on 29 December 1890; the last `battle` of the Plains Wars. On 15 December the Hunkpapa Sioux chief Sitting Bull had been killed, supposedly resisting arrest for involvement in the Ghost Dance movement. The remaining Hun...

Worms
Ancient city and river port in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, on the River Rhine, 25 km/15 mi north of Ludwigshafen; population (1995) 79,700. Industries include food processing and the manufacture of chemicals, paint, machinery, furniture, and worsted. The vineyards of the Liebfrauenkirche (14th to 15th century) produced the original L...

woodwind
Musical instrument from which sound is produced by blowing into a tube, causing the air within to vibrate. These instruments were originally made of wood but are now more commonly made of metal. The saxophone, made of metal, is an honorary woodwind instrument because it is related to the clarinet. The flute, clarinet, oboe, and bassoon make up the ...

Woodstock
The first free rock festival, held near Bethel, New York, over three days in August 1969. It was attended by 400,000 people, and performers included the Band, Country Joe and the Fish, the Grateful Dead, Jimi Hendrix, Jefferson Airplane, Janis Joplin, and the Who. The festival was a landmark in the youth culture of the 1960s (see hippie) and was re...

Wordsworth, Dorothy
English writer. She was the only sister of William Wordsworth and lived with him (and later his wife) as a companion and support from 1795 until his death. Her journals (of which only a small section remains) describe their life in Alfoxden, Somerset, and at Grasmere in the Lake District, and their travels (which provided inspiration and material f...

woad
Biennial plant native to Europe, with arrow-shaped leaves and clusters of small yellow flowers. It was formerly cultivated for a blue dye extracted from its leaves. Ancient Britons used the blue dye as a body paint in battle. (Genus Isatis tinctoria, family Cruciferae.)

wool
Natural hair covering of the sheep, and also of the llama, angora goat, and some other mammals. The domestic sheep Ovis aries provides the great bulk of the fibres used in textile production. A by-product of wool production is lanolin. History Sheep have been bred for their woo...

World Series
Annual baseball competition between the National League (NL) and American League (AL) champions. It is a best-of-seven series played each October. The first World Series was played in 1903 (as a best-of-nine series) and the AL's Boston Pilgrims defeated the NL's Pittsburgh Pirates in eight games

Women's Land Army
In Britain, organization founded in 1916 for the recruitment of women to work on farms during World War I. At its peak in September 1918 it had 16,000 members. It re-formed June in 1939, before the outbreak of World War II. Many `Land Girls` joined up to help the war effort and, by August 1943, 87,000 were employed in farm work

Wonder, Stevie
US pop musician, singer, and songwriter. He is associated with Motown Records, and had his first hit, `Fingertips, Pt. 2`, at the age of 13. Later hits, most of which he composed and sang, and on which he also played several instruments, include `My Cherie Amour`, `You Are the Sunshine of My Life`, `Superstition&#...

woodland
Area in which trees grow more or less thickly; generally smaller than a forest. Temperate climates, with four distinct seasons a year, tend to support a mixed woodland habitat, with some conifers but mostly broad-leaved and deciduous trees, shedding their leaves in autumn and regrowing them i...

woodcut
Print made by a woodblock in which a picture or design has been cut in relief. Areas that are intended to be white are cut away leaving the raised remainder to catch and transfer the ink, which is usually black. The woodcut is the oldest method of printing, invented in China in the 5th century AD. In the Middle Ages woodcuts became popular in Europ...

Woodcraft Folk
British name for the youth organization founded in the USA as the Woodcraft League by Ernest Thompson Seton in 1902, with branches in many countries. Inspired by the Scouts, it differs in that it is for mixed groups and is socialist in outlook

World Cup
The most prestigious competition in international soccer, organized by the sport's world governing body, Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA). Similar international competitions are also held in rugby union, cricket, athletics, and other sports. Most world cup events are held every four years but the skiing world c...

Women's Social and Political Union
British political movement founded in 1903 by Emmeline Pankhurst to organize a militant crusade for female suffrage. In 1909, faced with government indifference, the WSPU embarked on a campaign of window smashing, telephone-wire cutting, and arson of public buildings. This civil disobedience had little result and was overtaken by the outbreak o...

Wollaston, William Hyde
English chemist and physicist who discovered in 1804 how to make malleable platinum. He went on to discover the new elements palladium in 1804 and rhodium in 1805. He also contributed to optics through the invention of a number of ingenious and still useful measuring instruments

Woodward, Robert Burns
US chemist who worked on synthesizing a large number of complex molecules. These included quinine in 1944, cholesterol in 1951, chlorophyll in 1960, and vitamin B12 in 1971. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1965 for his work in organic synthesis

worsted
Stiff, smooth woollen fabric

wolframite
Iron manganese tungstate, (Fe,Mn)WO4, an ore mineral of tungsten. It is dark grey with a submetallic surface lustre, and often occurs in hydrothermal veins in association with ores of tin

work to rule
Industrial action whereby employees work strictly according to the legal terms of their contract of employment, usually resulting in a slowing-down of the work process

workhouse
In the UK, a former institution to house and maintain people unable to earn their own living, established under the poor law. Groups of parishes in England combined to build workhouses for the poor, the aged, the disabled, and orphaned children from about 1815 until about 1930. Sixteenth-century poor laws made parishes responsible for helping t...

working men's club
Social club set up in the 19th century to cater for the education and recreation of working men. Today the clubs have few limitations on membership and are entirely social. Educational institutes for working men were a feature of most industrial towns in Britain by the early 19th century. In 1852 the Collonade Working-mens's Club in London ...

work
In physics, a transfer of energy from one system to another, caused when the point of application of a force moves in the direction of the force. Work is done when, for example, a wire is stretched, or a gas is compressed, or a ball is thrown. No work is done when the point of application moves at right angles to the force; for example, when an...