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


Great War
Another name for World War I

Graafian follicle
Fluid-filled capsule that surrounds and protects the developing egg cell inside the ovary during the menstrual cycle. After the egg cell has been released, the follicle remains and is known as a corpus luteum

Great Power
Any of the major European powers of the 19th century: Russia, Austria (Austria-Hungary), France, Britain, and Prussia

Grenville, George
English Whig politician, prime minister, and chancellor of the Exchequer, whose introduction of the Stamp Act of 1765 to raise revenue from the colonies was one of the causes of the American Revolution. His government was also responsible for prosecuting the radical John Wilkes

Grenville, Richard
English naval commander and adventurer who died heroically aboard his ship The Revenge when attacked by Spanish warships. Grenville fought in Hungary and Ireland (1566–69), and was knighted about 1577. In 1585 he commanded the expedition that founded Virginia, USA, for his cousin Walter Raleigh. From 1586 to 1588 he organize...

Grenville, William Wyndham
British Whig politician, home secretary from 1791, foreign secretary from 1794; he resigned along with Prime Minister Pitt the Younger in 1801 over George III's refusal to assent to Catholic emancipation. He headed the `All the Talents` coalition of 1806–07 that abolished the slave trade

graphical user interface
In computing, a type of user interface in which programs and files appear as icons (small pictures), user options are selected from pull-down menus, and data are displayed in windows (rectangular areas), which the operator can manipulate in various ways. The operator uses a pointing device, typically a mouse, to make selections and initiate act...

gravitational lensing
Bending of light by a gravitational field, predicted by German-born US physicist Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity. The effect was first detected in 1917, when the light from stars was found to bend as it passed the totally eclipsed Sun. More remarkable is the splitting of light from distant quasars into two or more images by i...

grand unified theory
In physics, sought-for theory that would combine the theory of the strong nuclear force (called quantum chromodynamics) with the theory of the weak nuclear and electromagnetic forces (see forces, fundamental). The search for the grand unified theory is part of a larger programme seeking a unified field theory, or `theory of everything`...

graph notation
In music, an invented sign language representing unorthodox sounds objectively in pitch and time, or alternatively representing sounds of orthodox music in a visually unorthodox manner. A form of graph notation for speech patterns used in phonetics was adopted by Karlheinz Stockhausen in Carré/Squared (1959–60). Gra...

grant-maintained school
In the UK, a state school that has voluntarily withdrawn itself from local authority support (an action called opting out), and instead is maintained directly by central government. The schools are managed by their own boards of governors. In 1996 there were 1,090 grant-maintained schools, of which 60% were secondary schools

Great Artesian Basin
Largest area of artesian water in the world. It underlies much of Queensland, New South Wales, and South Australia, and in prehistoric times formed a sea. It has an area of 1,750,000 sq km/675,750 sq mi

Graham, Martha
US dancer, choreographer, teacher, and director. The greatest exponent of modern dance in the USA, she developed a distinctive vocabulary of movement, the Graham Technique, now taught worldwide. Her pioneering technique, designed to express inner emotion and intention through dance forms, represented...

Great Plains
Semi-arid region of about 3.2 million sq km/1.2 million sq mi in North America, to the east of the Rocky Mountains, stretching as far as the 100th meridian of longitude through Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, and the Dakotas. The Plains, which cover one-fifth of the USA, extend from Texas in the south over 2,400 km/1,500 mi north to Alb...

Grant, Cary
English-born actor, a US citizen from 1942. His witty, debonair personality and good looks made him a screen favourite for more than three decades. Among his many films are She Done Him Wrong (1933), Bringing Up Baby (1938), The Philadelphia Story (1940), Notorious (194...

Griffith, D(avid) W(ark)
US film director. He was an influential figure in the development of cinema as an art. He made hundreds of one-reelers 1908–13, in which he pioneered the techniques of masking, fade-out, flashback, crosscut, close-up, and long shot. After much experimentation with photography and new techniques, he directed The Birth of a ...

Graham, Billy
(William Franklin) US Protestant evangelist, known for the dramatic staging and charismatic eloquence of his preaching. Graham has preached to millions during worldwide crusades and on television, bringing many thousands to conversion to, or renewal of, Christian faith

groundwater
Water present underground in porous rock strata and soils; it emerges at the surface as springs and streams. The groundwater's upper level is called the water table. Rock strata that are filled with groundwater that can be extracted are called aquifers. Aquifers must be both porous (filled with holes) and permeable (full of holes that are i...

graphic equalizer
Control used in hi-fi systems that allows the distortions introduced in the sound output by unequal amplification of different frequencies to be corrected. The frequency range of the signal is divided into separate bands, usually third-octave bands. The amplification applied to each band is adjusted by a sliding contact; the position of...

gravitational force
One of the four fundamental forces of nature, the other three being the electromagnetic force, the weak nuclear force, and the strong nuclear force. The gravitational force is the weakest of the four forces, but acts over great distances. The particle that is postulated as the carrier of the gravitational force is the graviton

graviton
In physics, the gauge boson that is the postulated carrier of the gravitational force

Great Patriotic War
War between the USSR and Germany during World War II. When Germany invaded the USSR in June 1941, the Soviet troops retreated, carrying out a scorched earth policy and relocating strategic industries beyond the Ural Mountains. Stalin remained in Moscow and the Soviet forces, inspired to fight on by his patriotic speeches, launched a counter-off...

grebe
Any of a group of 19 species of water birds. The great crested grebe (Podiceps cristatus) is the largest of the Old World grebes. It feeds on fish, and lives on ponds and marshes in Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia. It grows to 50 cm/20 in long and has a white breast, with c...

growth
(biology) In biology, increase in size and mass during the development of an organism over a period of time. Growth is often measured as an increase in biomass (mass of organic material, excluding water) and is associated with cell division by mitosis, subsequent increases in cell size, and wi...

Great Lakes
Series of five freshwater lakes along the USA–Canadian border: Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario; total area 245,000 sq km/94,600 sq mi. Interconnected by a network of canals and rivers, the lakes are navigable by large ships, and they are connected with the Atlantic Ocean via the St Lawrence River and by the St Lawrence...

gravitational field
Region around a body in which other bodies experience a force due to its gravitational attraction. The gravitational field of a massive object such as the Earth is very strong and easily recognized as the force of gravity, whereas that of an object of much smaller mass is very weak and difficult to detect. Gravitational fields produce only attracti...

gravitational potential energy
Energy possessed by an object when it is placed in a position from which, if it were free to do so, it would fall under the influence of gravity. If the object is free to fall, then the gravitational potential energy is converted into kinetic (motion) energy. The gravitational potential energy Ep of an obje...

group
(chemistry) In chemistry, a vertical column of elements in the periodic table. Elements in a group have similar physical and chemical properties; for example, the group I elements (the alkali metals: lithium, sodium, potassium, rubidium, caesium, and francium) are all highly reactive m...

grievous bodily harm
In English law, very serious physical damage suffered by the victim of a crime. The courts have said that judges should not try to define grievous bodily harm but leave it to the jury to decide

green audit
Inspection of a company to assess the total environmental impact of its activities or of a particular product or process. For example, a green audit of a manufactured product looks at the impact of production (including energy use and the extraction of raw materials used in manufacture), use (which may cause pollution and other hazards), and dispos...

green movement
Collective term for the individuals and organizations involved in efforts to protect the environment. The movement includes political parties such as the Green Party and organizations like Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace. See also environmental issues. Despite a rapid growth of public support, and membership of environmental organizations runni...

grey market
Dealing in shares using methods that are legal but officially frowned upon – for example, before issue and flotation – or in goods through distribution channels other than those authorized or intended by the manufacturer

greenmail
Payment made by a target company to avoid a takeover; for example, buying back a portion of its own shares from a potential predator (either a person or a company) at an inflated price

gross
A particular figure or price, calculated before the deduction of specific items such as commission, discounts, interest, and taxes. The opposite is net

Greek Orthodox Church
See Orthodox Church

Greenaway, Peter
Welsh film director. His films are highly stylized and cerebral, richly visual, and often controversial. His feeling for perspective and lighting reveal his early training as a painter. The Draughtsman's Contract (1983), a tale of 18th-century country-house intrigue, is dazzling in its visual and narrative complexity....

Group of Eight
The eight leading industrial nations of the world: the USA, Japan, Germany, France, the UK, Italy, Canada, and Russia, which account for more than three-fifths of global GDP. Founded as the Group of Seven (G7) in 1975, without Russia, the heads of government have met once a year to discuss economic and, increasingly, political matters. Russ...

graph plotter
Alternative name for a plotter

grid reference
Numbering system used to specify a location on a map. The numbers representing grid lines at the bottom of the map (eastings) are given before those at the side (northings). Successive decimal digits refine the location within the grid system

groyne
Wooden or concrete barrier built at right angles to a beach in order to block the movement of material along the beach by longshore drift. Groynes are usually successful in protecting individual beaches, but because they prevent beach material from passing along the coast they can mean that other beaches, starved of sand and shingle, are in danger ...

gradient
On a graph, the slope of a straight or curved line. The slope of a curve at any given point is represented by the slope of the tangent at that point

grape
Fruit of any grape vine, especially V. vinifera. (Genus Vitis, family Vitaceae.)

graphology
The study of the writing systems of a language, including the number and formation of letters, spelling patterns, accents, and punctuation. In the 19th century it was believed that analysis of a person's handwriting could give an indication of his or her personality, a belief still held in a more limited fashion today

Green Man
In English folklore, a figure dressed and covered in foliage, associated with festivities celebrating the arrival of spring. His face is represented in a variety of English church carvings, in wood or stone, often with a protruding tongue. Similar figures also occur in French and German folklore, the earliest related carvings being in Trier, France...

Grimshaw, Nicholas Thomas
English architect. His work has developed along distinctly high-tech lines, for example his Financial Times printing works, London (1988), an uncompromisingly industrial building that exposes machinery to view through a glass outer wall. Later works include the Continental Train Platform at Waterloo Station, London (1993), th...

grunge
Rock music style of the early 1990s, featuring a thick, abrasive, distorted sound. Grunge evolved from punk in the Seattle and Washington areas of the USA and became popular following the chart success of the band Nirvana in 1991. The Melvins (formed in Seattle in the early 1980s) pioneered grunge wi...

graphic file format
Format in which computer graphics are stored and transmitted. There are two main types: raster graphics in which the image is stored as a bit map (arrangement of dots), and vector graphics, in which the image is stored using geometric formulae. There are many different file formats, some of which are used by specific computers, operating system...

graffiti art
Art inspired by urban graffiti. Critical and financial interest in graffiti art emerged in the 1970s in New York, with artists and critics seeing graffiti as a direct and genuine expression of urban culture, free of the manipulation of the art market. Leading graffiti artists were Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring. Though its direct inspira...

ground
In art, the prepared surface of the canvas or panel on which a painter works. It is usually white paint (over which a warm tone such as Indian red is sometimes laid) or plaster. In etching, the ground is the wax coating of the metal plate through which the artist draws with the etching needle

graphics card
In computing, a peripheral device that processes and displays graphics

griffon Bruxelloise
Breed of terrierlike toy dog originally bred in Belgium. It weighs up to 4.5 kg/10 lb and has a harsh and wiry coat that is red or black in colour. The smooth-haired form of the breed is called the petit Brabançon. The griffon Bruxelloise has a large rounded head with semi-erect ears; large black eyes with black eye-rims...

grotesque
(art) In art, a style in which a profusion of human figures, imaginary monsters, animals, flowers, and fruit are mingled in a fanciful and eccentric way. It is found particularly in mural and sculptural decoration. Such decorations were found during excavations of Roman houses at the beginning...

Greene, Maurice
US athlete who held the 100-metre world record for six years after running 9.79 seconds in Athens, Georgia, in June 1999. A month later at the World Championships in Seville, Spain, he became the first person to win gold medals in both the men's 100 and 200 metres. At the 2000 Olympic Games i...

Great American Desert
Historic name for the Great Plains region of the USA, lying between the Mississippi River in the east and the Rocky Mountains in the west. Named by US government-appointed explorer Major Stephen Long in 1823, the term was used on 19th-century maps and deterred settlers of the 1840s and 1850s, who assumed that the region was infertile. The m...

Great Rebellion
Revolt against the English government in Ireland between 1641 and 1650. It was supported by the Old Irish (descendants of the original Gaelic inhabitants) and Norman-Irish (descendants of Norman settlers). Their killing of Protestant planters, settlers of confiscated Catholic land, and intrigue with Charles I during the English Civil War (1641&...

Greek medicine
Medicine of ancient Greece, the most powerful and advanced civilization in Europe around 1000–300 BC. Building on the traditions of ancient Egyptian medicine, and those of India, China, and Mesopotamia (Iraq), the Greeks developed two major contrasting medical movements: the cult of Asclepius, god of medicine, and the rational medical theo...

grouped data
In statistics, arrangement of raw data with a wide range of values into groups. This process makes the data more manageable. Graphs and frequency diagrams can then be drawn showing the class intervals chosen instead of individual values

grog
In ceramics, clay that has been fired and ground down into fine granules. Grog may be used as an ingredient in a new clay item, raising the overall firing temperature that it can withstand, and thus making it more stable and less likely to crack. Adding grog to the new clay can change its appearance after firing. Grog is also used as a base on whic...

gradation
In art, the gradual blending of one tint or tone with another. When painting, gradation can be most easily and effectively achieved by thinning down the medium or by adding progressively more white to lighten a tone. Darker tones can be created by the addition of blues, reds, or greens. Pastels and chalks lend themselves particularly well to gradat...

grapheme
Written representation of a sound; that is, a written phoneme, that consists of one or more letters. Examples of graphemes are: t, ed, ea

grammatical boundary
Edge of a grammatical unit, such as a sentence, clause or phrase, indicated by a punctuation mark

grotesque
(literature) In literature, a character or location that is irregular, extravagant or fantastic in form. When used as a device, the purpose is often in the style of expressionism, making the grotesque a parody of human qualities or a distorted reflection of a familiar place. In literature, whe...

Great Karoo
Larger and more northerly of two areas of the Karoo, a semi-desert region in South Africa

grain
In a piece of timber, the mass of plant cells in the heartwood compressed together as the cells die. It is seen as long thin strands when the wood is cut. The grain runs in one direction. Timber has a high tensile strength along the grain

Group of Seven
Former name 1975–98 of the Group of Eight (G8), the eight leading industrial nations

guelder rose
Cultivated shrub or small tree, native to Europe and North Africa, with round clusters of white flowers which are followed by shiny red berries. (Viburnum opulus, family Caprifoliaceae.)

guava
Tropical American tree belonging to the myrtle family; the astringent yellow pear-shaped fruit is used to make guava jelly, or it can be stewed or canned. It has a high vitamin C content. (Psidium guajava, family Myrtaceae.)

guarana
Brazilian woody climbing plant. A drink with a high caffeine content is made from its roasted seeds, and it is the source of the drug known as zoom in the USA. Starch, gum, and several oils are extracted from it for commercial use. (Paullinia cupana, family Sapindaceae.)

gunpowder
Oldest known explosive, a mixture of 75% potassium nitrate (saltpetre), 15% charcoal, and 10% sulphur. Sulphur ignites at a low temperature, charcoal burns readily, and the potassium nitrate provides oxygen for the explosion. As gunpowder produces lots of smoke and burns quite slowly, it has progressively been replaced since the late 19...

gull
Click images to enlargeAny of a group of seabirds that are usually 25–75 cm/10–30 in long, white with grey or black on the back and wings, and have large beaks. Immature birds are normally a mottled brown colour. Gulls are sociable, noisy birds and they breed in colonies. (Genus principally Larus<...

guinea pig
Species of cavy, a type of rodent

guinea fowl
Any of a group of chickenlike African birds, including the helmet guinea fowl (Numida meleagris), which has a horny growth on the head, white-spotted feathers, and fleshy cheek wattles (loose folds of skin). It is the ancestor of the domestic guinea fowl. Guinea fowl are mostly gregarious ground-feeders, eating insects, l...

guillemot
Any of several diving seabirds belonging to the auk family that breed on rocky North Atlantic and Pacific coasts. The common guillemot (U. aalge) has a long straight beak and short tail and wings; the feet are three-toed and webbed, the feathers are sooty brown and white. It breeds in large colonies on sea cliffs. The bla...

gudgeon
Any of an Old World group of freshwater fishes of the carp family, especially the species G. gobio found in Europe and northern Asia on the gravel bottoms of streams. It is olive-brown, spotted with black, and up to 20 cm/8 in long, with a distinctive barbel (sensory bristle, or `whisker`) at each side of the mo...

gum
(botany) In botany, complex polysaccharides (carbohydrates) formed by many plants and trees, particularly by those from dry regions. They form four main groups: plant exudates (gum arabic); marine plant extracts (agar); seed extracts; and fruit and vegetable extracts. Some are ...

guanaco
Hoofed ruminant (cud-chewing) mammal belonging to the camel family, found in South America on the pampas and mountain plateaux. It grows up to 1.2 m/4 ft at the shoulder, with the head and body measuring about 1.5 m/5 ft in length. It is sandy brown in colour, with a blackish face, and has fine wool. It lives in small herds and is the a...

guttation
Secretion of water on to the surface of leaves through specialized pores, or hydathodes. The process occurs most frequently during conditions of high humidity when the rate of transpiration is low. Drops of water found on grass in early morning are often the result of guttation, rather than dew. Sometimes the water contains minerals in solution, su...

Gujarati language
Member of the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European language family, spoken in and around the state of Gujarat in western India. It is written in its own script, a variant of the Devanagari script used for Sanskrit and Hindi

Gush Emunim
Israeli fundamentalist group, founded in 1974, which claims divine right to Jewish settlement of the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and Golan Heights as part of Israel

Gustavus Vasa
King of Sweden from 1523, when he was elected after leading the Swedish revolt against Danish rule. He united and pacified the country and established Lutheranism as the state religion

Guomindang
Chinese National People's Party formed in 1912 after the overthrow of the Manchu Empire, and led by Sun Zhong Shan (Sun Yat-sen). The Guomindang was an amalgamation of small political groups, including Sun's Hsin Chung Hui (`New China Party`), founded in 1894. During the Chinese revolution (1927–49) the...

Gulf States
Oil-rich countries sharing the coastline of the Gulf (Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates). In the USA, the term refers to those states bordering the Gulf of Mexico (Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas)

Gujarat
State of west India, formed from north and west Bombay state in 1960; bordered to the north by Pakistan and Rajasthan, with Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra to the east and southeast; area 195,984 sq km/75,670 sq mi; population (2001 est) 50,597,000 (70% Hindu). The capital is Gandhinagar (founded in 1961); other major towns a...

Guizhou
Province of south China, consisting mainly of high plateaus and bounded to the north by Sichuan, to the east by Hunan, to the south by Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, and to the west by Yunnan; area 174,000 sq km/67,000 sq mi; population (2000 est) 35,250,000 (ethnic minorities comprise about 25% of the population). The capital is...

Guiyang
Capital of Guizhou province, south China; population (2000) 1,894,300. It is an important transport and industrial centre, producing aluminium, iron, steel, machinery, machine tools, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, textiles, and construction materials. There are coal and bauxite mines nearby

guitar
Plucked, fretted string instrument. It may be called the classical guitar, the Spanish guitar (because of its origins), or the acoustic guitar (to differentiate it from the electric guitar). The fingerboard has frets (strips of metal showing where to place the finger to obtain different notes), and t...

Guise, Francis
French soldier and politician. He led the French victory over Germany at Metz in 1552 and captured Calais from the English in 1558. Along with his brother Charles (1527–1574), he was powerful in the government of France during the reign of Francis II. He was assassinated attempting to crush the Huguenots

guillotine
(capital punishment) Beheading device consisting of a metal blade that descends between two posts. It was common in the Middle Ages and was introduced to France in 1791 by physician Joseph Ignace Guillotin (1738–1814), who recommended the use of the guillotine for all sentences of death. ...

Guiana
Northeastern part of South America that includes French Guiana, Guyana, and Suriname

Guildford
Cathedral city and county town (since 1257) of Surrey, southeast England, on the River Wey, 48 km/30 mi southwest of London; urban population (2001) 69,400; borough population (2001) 129,700. Industries include telecommunications, engineering, and the manufacture of plastics and pharmaceuticals. Features include a ruined Norman castle, ...

Guernsey
Second-largest of the Channel Islands; area 63 sq km/24.3 sq mi; population (2001) 59,800. The capital is St Peter Port. Products include electronics, tomatoes, flowers, and butterflies; and since 1975 it has been a major financial centre. Guernsey cattle, which are a distinctive pale fawn colour and give rich, creamy milk, orig...

Guatemala City
Capital and largest city of Guatemala, situated in the Guatemalan Highlands at an altitude of 1,500 m/4,920 ft on a plateau in the Sierra Madre mountains; population (2002 est) 942,300. A group of volcanoes overlooks the city: Acatenango (3,976 m/13,044 ft), Fuego (3,763 m/12,346 ...

Guangzhou
Capital of Guangdong province, south China; population (2000) 7,547,500. On the Zhu River, Guangzhou is one of China's major ports, handling some 15% of the country's foreign trade. Industries include steel, shipbuilding, engineering, and the manufacture of automobiles, electronic goo...

Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region
Autonomous region in south China, bounded to the north by Guizhou, to the northeast by Hunan, to the east by Guangdong, to the south by the Gulf of Tongking, to the southwest by Vietnam, and to the west by Yunnan; area 236,700 sq km/91,400 sq mi; population (2000 est) 44,890,000 (includin...

Guangdong
Province of south China, bounded to the north by Hunan and Jiangxi; to the northeast by Fujian; to the south by the South China Sea, Hong Kong (since 1997 an enclave of Guangdong province), Macau, and the island province of Hainan; and to the west by Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region; area 197,000 sq km/76,062 sq mi; populati...

Guam
Largest and southernmost of the Mariana Islands in the West Pacific, an unincorporated territory of the USA; it lies between the Philippine Sea and the southwest Pacific Ocean, some 1,540 km/960 mi north of the Equator; length 50 km/30 mi, width 6–19 km/4–12 mi; area 549 sq km/212 sq mi; population (2001 es...

Guadeloupe
Group of islands in the Leeward Islands, West Indies (nine of which are inhabited), an overseas département of France; area 1,705 sq km/658 sq mi; population (1999 est) 422,500. The main islands are Basse-Terre and Grande-Terre. The chief town and seat of government is Basse-Terre; the largest tow...

Guadalcanal Island
Largest of the Solomon Islands; area 5,302 sq km/2,047 sq mi; population (1999) 60,300, (2007 calc) 73,000. The principal population centres are Honiara, capital of the Solomon Islands, Aola, and Lunga, all on the north coast. Gold, copra, and rubber are produced. The population is Melanesian (or Papuasian). In 1942, during World War II...

Guadalajara
Industrial city and capital of Jalisco state, western Mexico; population (2000 est) 1,646,200 (city), 3,677,500 (metropolitan area). The second-largest city in Mexico, 535 km/332 mi northwest of Mexico City, Guadalajara is a key communications centre. Industries (which benefit from hydroelectricity from the local Juanacatlán Falls)...

Gutenberg, Johannes
German printer, the inventor of European printing from movable metal type (although Laurens Janszoon Coster has a rival claim). Gutenberg began work on the process in the 1440s and in 1450 set up a printing business in Mainz. By 1456 he had produced the first printed Bible (known as the Gutenberg Bib...