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


Indian Territory
Initially most of the land west of the Mississippi River; after 1834 the term was restricted to the present state of Oklahoma. After the Indian Relocation Act of 1830, most of the American Indians east of the Mississippi were relocated to Indian Territory, some forcibly, including the Five Civilized Tribes from 1838. Indian Territory became the...

infertility
In medicine, inability to reproduce. In women, this may be due to blockage in the Fallopian tubes, failure of ovulation, a deficiency in sex hormones, or general ill health. In men, impotence, an insufficient number of sperm or abnormal sperm may be the cause of infertility. Clinical investigation will reveal the cause of the infertility in about 7...

intercostal
In anatomy, the nerves, blood vessels, and muscles that lie between the ribs

India: history 1526–1858
Period of Indian history under the rule of the north Indian Mogul dynasty. The Islamic Mogul civilization flourished in the Indian subcontinent (present-day India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh) during the 16th and 17th centuries. Emperors such as Babur, Akbar, and Aurangzeb controlled a hugely wealthy and culturally diverse empire. However, despite...

Installation art
Type of modern art in which the artist uses, as part of the composition, the specific setting (such as walls, floor, lights, and fittings) along with various materials. Typically the chosen materials more or less fill the space, and the viewer is often able to move around or otherwise interact with the work, so that they become part of that work in...

Indian reservation
Land in the USA held in trust by the federal or a state government for a specified group (`tribe`) of American Indians, or `Indians`. US reservations range in size from a few acres to the huge Navajo Reservation. Social and economic conditions also vary widely; while poverty and dependence on the federal government has affli...

Information, Ministry of
British government department created in 1939, at the beginning of World War II, to control the supply and content of information about the war. It distributed British government propaganda and controlled censorship for the duration of the war, a function considered vital to the war effort. The ministry also produced informative and morale-boos...

indent
In text, a measured space inwards from the left-hand margin, indicating the beginning of a paragraph. This practice is stylistically correct in handwritten documents but has declined in word processing, where a double `carriage return` (or line space) separates paragraphs

inferential reading ability
Ability to deduce facts or ideas not specifically expressed within a text, commonly known as being able to `read between the lines`. Literature makes considerable use of inference. This is a subtle means of communication, and relies heavily on the sensitivity of the reader to what is implied by the text. When Dickens wrote in A C...

index notation
The index, or power of a number indicates how many times the number is to be multiplied by itself. For example, 42 (four squared) = 4 × 4 = 16; 23 (two cubed) = 2 × 2 × 2 = 8; and 54 (five to the power four) = 5 × 5 × 5 × 5...

independent event
In statistics, an unconnected event whose occurrence has no effect on the probability of another event happening. For example, if a coin is tossed and a die thrown at the same time, the events of `getting a head on the coin` and `throwing a six on the die` are independent, because they have no connection with each other. Multipl...

Inuit art
Art of the Inuit, a people inhabiting the coastal Arctic regions of northeast Siberia, North America, and Greenland. Although the scattered Inuit lived a hard life in a savage environment, they share surprisingly similar oral and sculptural traditions that go back over 2,000 years. Their art reflects their belief in animism (that everything, whethe...

inherited disease
Disease resulting from the effect of having defective genes. These diseases are inherited because genetic material is accurately copied before being passed onto the offspring from a parent. However, they can also arise as a result of a sudden change in the DNA known as a mutation. Common examples of inherited diseases in humans are cystic fibrosis,...

inheritance
In biology, the passing of characteristics from parents to offspring. Characteristics that can be passed on in this way are determined by genes (see also allele). The study of inheritance is called genetics and was founded by the Austrian biologist Gregor Mendel. He found that crossing two parents having one contrasting characteristic (for example,...

Inner Hebrides
Group of islands that comprise that part of the Hebrides closest to the west coast of mainland Scotland

invocation
Literary device in which a power external to the poem or story is called upon for assistance. Often this is a call to the gods to help with the composition of a poem and is usually placed at the beginning of the work. Common in ancient Greek and Roman literature, it was revived during the Renaissance. Later writers were less respectful and mocked t...

insoluble
In chemistry, describing a substance that does not dissolve in water. For example, calcium carbonate is insoluble and forms a suspension in water. It may be separated from water by filtration, passing the suspension through filter paper. Insoluble salts can be made by adding together solutions of two soluble salts. This is called a precipitation re...

interactive whiteboard
Standard term for a product that displays a computer desktop on what appears to be a standard whiteboard and allows the user to interact with the information. The display device is either a liquid-crystal display (LCD) or a device such as a plasma display. The display is controlled using the features of the whiteboard. Interactive whiteboards u...

input form
In computing, a specifically designed display used for data entry in a database. An input form lets the user enter data one entry at a time. It also allows the database designer to control formatting using validation techniques, the process of checking input data for errors. The input form can also be instructed to check that vital fields are compl...

induced charge
Separation of charges within an object caused by the proximity of a charged object. This separation causes one side of the object to become negatively charged, and the opposite side to become positively charged

ion plating
Method of applying corrosion-resistant metal coatings. The article is placed in argon gas, together with some coating metal, which vaporizes on heating and becomes ionized (acquires charged atoms) as it diffuses through the gas to form the coating. It has important applications in the aerospace industry

ion
Atom, or group of atoms, that is either positively charged (cation) or negatively charged (anion), as a result of the loss or gain of electrons during chemical reactions or exposure to certain forms of radiation. In solution or in the molten state, ionic compounds such as salts, acids, alkalis, and metal oxides give rise to mobile ions and therefor...

Ionian
Member of a Hellenic people from beyond the Black Sea who crossed the Balkans c. 1980 BC and invaded Asia Minor. Driven back by the Hittites, they settled all over mainland Greece, later being supplanted by the Achaeans

Ionian Sea
Part of the Mediterranean Sea that lies between Italy and Greece, to the south of the Adriatic Sea, and containing the Ionian Islands

Ionia
In classical times the east coast of the Aegean Sea and the offshore islands, settled about 1000 BC by the Ionians; it included the cities of Ephesus, Miletus, and later Smyrna, and the islands of Chios and Samos

Ionesco, Eugène
Romanian-born French dramatist. He was a leading exponent of the Theatre of the Absurd. Most of his plays are in one act and concern the futility of language as a means of communication. These include La Cantatrice chauve/The Bald Prima Donna (1950) and La Leçon/The Lesson (1951). Later full...

Io
(astronomy) In astronomy, third-largest moon of the planet Jupiter, 3,630 km/2,260 mi in diameter, orbiting in 1.77 days at a distance of 422,000 km/262,000 mi. It is the most volcanically active body in the Solar System, ...

iodoform
Antiseptic that crystallizes into yellow hexagonal plates. It is soluble in ether, alcohol, and chloroform, but not in water

iodine
Greyish-black non-metallic element, atomic number 53, relative atomic mass 126.9044. It is a member of the halogen group (Group 7 of the periodic table). Its crystals sublime, giving off, when heated, a violet vapour with an irritating odour resembling that of chlorine. It occurs only in combination with other elements. Its salts are known ...

Ionian Islands
Island group off the west coast of Greece; area 860 sq km/332 sq mi; population (2001) 209,600. A British protectorate from 1815 until their cession to Greece in 1864, they include Cephalonia (Greek Kefallonia); Corfu (Kérkyra), a Venetian po...

ionosphere
Ionized layer of Earth's outer atmosphere (60–1,000 km/38–620 mi) that contains sufficient free electrons to modify the way in which radio waves are propagated, for instance by reflecting them back to Earth. The ionosphere is thought to be produced by absorption of the Sun's ultraviolet radiation. The British Antarctic Survey ...

ion engine
Rocket engine that uses ions (charged particles) rather than hot gas for propulsion. Ion engines have been successfully tested in space, where they will eventually be used for gradual rather than sudden velocity changes. In an ion engine, atoms of mercury, for example, are ionized (given an electric charge by an electric field) and then accelerated...

ionizing radiation
Radiation that removes electrons from atoms during its passage, thereby leaving ions in its path. Alpha and beta particles are far more ionizing in their effect than are neutrons or gamma radiation

Iona
Island in the Inner Hebrides; area 850 hectares/2,100 acres. A centre of early Christianity, it is the site of a monastery founded in 563 by St Columba. It later became a burial ground for Irish, Scottish, and Norwegian kings. It has a 13th-century abbey

IOM
Abbreviation for Isle of Man, an island in the Irish Sea

IOW
Abbreviation for Isle of Wight, an island and unitary authority off the coast of southern England

ionization potential
Measure of the energy required to remove an electron from an atom. Elements with a low ionization potential readily lose electrons to form cations

ion half equation
Equation that describes the reactions occurring at the electrodes of a chemical cell or in electrolysis. It indicates which ion is losing electrons (oxidation) or gaining electrons (reduction). Examples are given from the electrolysis of dilute hydrochloric acid (HCl): 2Cl- - 2e- ® ...

ionic compound
Substance composed of oppositely charged ions. All salts, most bases, and some acids are examples of ionic compounds. They possess the following general properties: they are crystalline solids with a high melting point; are soluble in water and insoluble in organic solvents; and always conduct electricity when molten or in aqueous solut...

ionic equation
Equation showing only those ions in a chemical reaction that actually undergo a change, either by combining together to form an insoluble salt or by combining together to form one or more molecular compounds. Examples are the precipitation of insoluble barium sulphate when barium and sulphate ions are combined in solution, and the production of amm...

ionic bond
Bond produced when atoms of one element donate electrons to atoms of another element, forming positively and negatively charged ions respectively. The attraction between the oppositely charged ions constitutes the bond. Sodium chloride (Na+Cl-) is...

Iowa
State of Midwestern USA, bordered to the south by Missouri, to the west by Nebraska and South Dakota, to the north by Minnesota, and to the east by Wisconsin and Illinois, with the Mississippi River forming the state boundary; area 144,700 sq km/55,869 sq mi; population (2006) 2,982,100&#...

ion exchange
Process whereby an ion in one compound is replaced by a different ion, of the same charge, from another compound. Ion exchange is used in commercial water softeners to exchange the dissolved ions responsible for the water's hardness with others that do not have this effect. For example, when hard water is passed over an ion-exchange resin, ...

Ionioi Nisoi
Greek name for Ionian Islands, off the west coast of Greece

Ipswich
River port and administrative headquarters of Suffolk, eastern England, on the Orwell estuary, 111 km/69 mi northeast of London; population (2001) 138,700. An important wool port in the 16th century, it now provides financial and distribution services, and is the location of British Telecom's laboratories. Other industries include engin...

ipecacuanha
South American plant belonging to the madder family, the dried roots of which are used in medicine as an emetic (to cause vomiting) and to treat amoebic dysentery (infection of the intestine with amoebae). (Psychotria ipecacuanha, family Rubiaceae.)

Ipoh
Capital of Perak state, Peninsular Malaysia; population (2000 est) 566,200. It lies in the Kinta Valley on an alluvial plain rich in tin ores. Tin mining in open pits has been the core industry since the late 19th century. Ipoh is also a commercial centre for nearby rubber plantations. Much of the city's power is provided by hydroelectricit...

IP address
In computing, numbered address assigned to an Internet host. Traditionally, IP addresses are 32-bit, which means that numbered addresses have four sections separated by dots, each a decimal number between 0 and 255. This is also called IPv4, and can provide a maximum of 4,294,967,296 different IP addresses. A newer specification called IPv6 is ...

Iqbal, Muhammad
Islamic poet and thinker. His literary works, in Urdu and Persian, were mostly verse in the classical style, suitable for public recitation. He sought through his writings to arouse Muslims to take their place in the modern world. He was knighted in 1922. His most celebrated work, the Persian Asra-e khudi/Secrets of the Self
IQ
The ratio between a subject's `mental` and chronological ages, multiplied by 100. A score of 100 ± 10 in an intelligence test is considered average

Iqaluit
Town in Baffin Region, capital of the Canadian territory of Nunavut; population (2001 est) 5,200. Iqaluit stands at the southeastern end of Baffin Island, on Frobisher Bay, 2,000 km/1,250 mi north of Montréal, Québec. In the 1950s many Inuit families were relocated to the area by the government; fishing, sealing, and handicraf...

Irving, Henry
English actor. He established his reputation from 1871, chiefly at the Lyceum Theatre in London, where he became manager in 1878. He staged a series of successful Shakespearean productions, including Romeo and Juliet (1882), with himself and Ellen Terry playing the leading roles. He was the first actor to be knighted, in 1895

iron ore
Any mineral from which iron is extracted. The chief iron ores are magnetite, a black oxide; haematite, or kidney ore, a reddish oxide; limonite, brown, impure oxyhydroxides of iron; and siderite, a brownish carbonate. Iron ores are found in a number of different forms, including distinct layers in igneous intrusions, as components of co...

Irrawaddy
Chief river of Myanmar (Burma), flowing roughly north–south for 2,090 km/1,300 mi across the centre of the country into the Bay of Bengal. Its sources are the Mali and N'mai rivers; its chief tributaries are the Chindwin and Shweli

Iroquois
Member of a confederation of American Indian peoples of northeastern North America formed about 1570. Known originally as the Five Nations, it included the Cayuga, Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, and Seneca. It became the Six Nations after the Tuscarora joined in 1722. From its New York homelands, the confederacy aggressively enlarged its territorial con...

Iron Guard
Profascist group controlling Romania in the 1930s. To counter its influence, King Carol II established a dictatorship in 1938 but the Iron Guard forced him to abdicate in 1940

Iron Curtain
In Europe after World War II, the symbolic boundary between capitalist West and communist East during the Cold War. The term was popularized by the UK prime minister Winston Churchill from 1946. An English traveller to Bolshevik Russia, Ethel Snowden (1881–1951), used the term with reference to ...

Irkutsk
(city) City in southern Siberian Russia, capital of Irkutsk oblast (region); population (2003 est) 594,400. Irkutsk is situated near Lake Baikal on the River Angara; there is a large hydroelectric station near the city. Coal is mined here, while manufactured goods include iron, steel, ...

Ireton, Henry
English general. During the Civil War he joined the parliamentary forces and fought at Edgehill in 1642, Gainsborough in 1643, and Naseby in 1645. After the Battle of Naseby, Ireton, who was opposed to both the extreme republicans and Levellers, strove for a compromise with Charles I, but then played a leading role in his trial and execution. He ma...

iron pyrites
Common iron ore. Brassy yellow, and occurring in cubic crystals, it is often called `fool's gold`, since only those who have never seen gold would mistake it

iridium
Hard, brittle, silver-white, metallic element, atomic number 77, relative atomic mass 192.2. It is resistant to tarnish and corrosion. Together with the elements ruthenium, rhodium, palladium, osmium, and platinum, it forms the group of platinum metals which have similar physical and chemical properties. It occurs in platinum ores and as a free...

iris
(anatomy) In anatomy, the coloured muscular diaphragm that controls the size of the pupil in the vertebrate eye. It contains radial muscle that increases the pupil diameter and circular muscle that constricts the pupil diameter. Both types of muscle respond involuntarily to light intensity

irrationalism
Feature of many philosophies rather than a philosophical movement. Irrationalists deny that the world can be comprehended by conceptual thought, and often see the human mind as determined by unconscious forces

irrational number
Number that cannot be expressed as an exact fraction. Irrational numbers include some square roots (for example, √2, √3, and √5 are irrational); numbers such as π (for circles), which is approximately equal to the decimal 3.14159; and e (the base of natural logarithms, approximately 2.71828). If an irrational number i...

Irish Gaelic
First official language of the Irish Republic, but much less widely used than the second official language, English. See Gaelic language. English has often been accused of `killing` Irish Gaelic for political and social reasons. As a consequence of the large numbers of English and Scottish settlements from the 16th century onwards, and fa...

iris
(botany) In botany, any of a group of perennial northern temperate flowering plants belonging to the iris family. The leaves are usually sword-shaped; the purple, white, or yellow flowers have three upright inner petals and th...

IRA
Abbreviation for Irish Republican Army

Iran–Iraq War
War between Iran and Iraq (1980–88), claimed by the former to have begun with the Iraqi offensive on 21 September 1980, and by the latter with the Iranian shelling of border posts on 4 September 1980. Occasioned by a boundary dispute over the Shatt-al-Arab waterway, it fundamentally aros...

Irish Republican Army
Militant Irish nationalist organization formed in 1919, the paramilitary wing of Sinn Fein. Its aim is to create a united Irish socialist republic including Ulster. To this end, the IRA has frequently carried out bombings and shootings. Despite its close association with Sinn Fein, it is not certain ...

Irish National Liberation Army
Guerrilla organization committed to the end of British rule in Northern Ireland and Irish reunification. The INLA, founded in 1974, is a left-wing offshoot of the Irish Republican Army (IRA). Among its activities was the killing of British politician Airey Neave in 1979. The INLA initially rejected the IRA's call for a ceasefire in 1994;...

ironclad
Wooden warship covered with armour plate. The first to be constructed was the French Gloire in 1858, but the first to be launched was the British HMS Warrior in 1859. The first battle between ironclads took place during the American Civil War, when the Union Monitor fought the Confederate <...

irredentist
Person who wishes to reclaim the lost territories of a state. The term derives from an Italian political party founded in about 1878 intending to incorporate Italian-speaking areas into the newly formed state

Iran
Click images to enlargeCountry in southwest Asia, bounded north by Armenia, Azerbaijan, the Caspian Sea, and Turkmenistan; east by Afghanistan and Pakistan; south and southwest by the Gulf of Oman and the Gulf; west by Iraq; and northwest by Turkey. Government The constitution, which came into effect on th...

Iraq
Country in southwest Asia, bounded north by Turkey, east by Iran, southeast by the Gulf and Kuwait, south by Saudi Arabia, and west by Jordan and Syria. Government Under the 2005 constitution, Iraq is an emerging parliamentary democratic republic with an evolving federal structure. The legislature, t...

Irian Jaya
Western portion of the island of New Guinea, disputed province of Indonesia; area 420,000 sq km/162,000 sq mi; population (2000 est) 2,220,900. The capital is Jayapura. Most of the population depends on subsistence farming, especially the cultivation of rice and maize. The main industries include copper (with the largest concentration o...

Ireland
Click images to enlargeAn island lying to the west of Great Britain between the Atlantic Ocean and the Irish Sea. It comprises the provinces of Ulster, Leinster, Munster, and Connacht, and is divided into the Republic of Ireland (which occupies the south, centre, and northwest of the island) and Northern Ireland (which oc...

Irangate
US political scandal in 1987 involving senior members of the Reagan administration (the name echoes the Nixon administration's Watergate). Congressional hearings 1986–87 revealed that the US government had secretly sold weapons to Iran in 1985 and traded them for hostages held in Lebanon by pro-Iranian militias, and used the profits to...

irradiation
Subjecting anything to radiation, including cancer tumours (when it is a type of radiotherapy). See also food irradiation

irrigation
Artificial water supply for dry agricultural areas by means of dams and channels. Drawbacks are that it tends to concentrate salts at the surface, ultimately causing soil infertility, and that rich river silt is retained at dams, to the impoverishment of the land and fisheries below them. Irrigation has been practised for thousands of years, in Eur...

Iráklion
Chief commercial port and capital city of Crete, Greece; population (1991) 117,200. There is a ferry link to Peiraias on the mainland. The archaeological museum contains a fine collection of antiquities from the island

Ireland, Republic of
Click images to enlargeCountry occupying the main part of the island of Ireland, in northwest Europe. It is bounded to the east by the Irish Sea, south and west by the Atlantic Ocean, and northeast by Northern Ireland. Government The 1937 constitution provides for a president, elected by universal suffrage for a seven-...

irony
Literary device that uses words to convey a meaning opposite to their literal sense, through the use of humour or sarcasm. It can be traced through all periods of literature, from classical Greek and Roman epics and dramas to the subtle irony of Chaucer and the 20th-century writer's method for dealing with despair, as in Samuel Beckett'...

Irbil
(city) Kurdish capital city, in the governorate of Irbil, in northern Iraq; population (2002 est) 839,600. Its position on the caravan route between Baghdad and Mosul helped it to become, as it still is, an important centre of commerce, particularly for the agricultural produce of the area...

Ireland, Northern
See Northern Ireland

iron
Hard, malleable and ductile, silver-grey, metallic element, atomic number 26, relative atomic mass 55.847. It chemical symbol comes from the Latin ferrum. It is the fourth most abundant element in the Earth's crust. Iron occurs in concentrated deposits as the ores haematite (Fe2O3
Irish nationalism
In Ireland, political and cultural expression of the concept of an Irish nation. Although a sense of Irishness probably existed in the Gaelic period before the 12th-century Norman invasion, political Irish nationalism developed from the early 16th century, when Protestant government reaction to C...

Irish
People of Irish culture from Ireland or those of Irish descent. The Irish mainly speak English, though there are approximately 30,000–100,000 speakers of Irish Gaelic (see Gaelic language), a Celtic language belonging to the Indo-European family. Celtic tribes, the ancestors of the Irish, migrated to Ireland about 300 BC. Later known as Ga...

Iranian language
The main language of Iran, more commonly known as Persian or Farsi

irregular verb
Verb that does not form each different tense in the `regular` way, for example the verb to be (am, was, were, have been). Some irregular verbs are strong verbs with special vowel changes across tenses, as in swim, swam, swum, and ride, rode, ridden

Irish Free State
Name of the former state of southern Ireland 1922–37, established as a result of the Anglo-Irish Treaty (1921). It was replaced by Eire in 1937 and the Republic of Ireland in 1949. The treaty established a 26-county dominion, which exercised a significant degree of autonomy but was formally subordinated to the British crown through the...

iridium anomaly
Unusually high concentrations of the element iridium found worldwide in sediments that were deposited at the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary (K-T boundary) 65 million years ago. Since iridium is more abundant in extraterrestrial material, its presence is thought to be evidence for a large meteorite impact that may have caused the extinction of...

IRC
In computing, abbreviation for Internet Relay Chat

Irish republicanism
Extreme wing of the Irish nationalist cause. Like Irish nationalism, its aims are complete separation from British rule and a united 32-county republic. Republicanism, however, has generally been associated with organizations prepared to use physical force to achieve these aims. The history of Irish republicanism covers a period of over 200 yea...

Ireland: history to 1154
There is some debate about the date of the earliest human occupants of Ireland. Various sites, such as that at Larne, had suggested that a Mesolithic culture, based on hunting and fishing, was established by around 6000 BC. However, it is now thought that these hunting and fishing people may have been contemporary to the Neolithic communities and m...

Ireland: history 1154 to 1485
For the history of Ireland before 1154, see Ireland: history to 1154. During the Middle Ages (12th–15th century), the English crown made itself the overlord of Ireland and tried but failed to extend its control over Ireland. Following the Anglo-Norman conquest, completed by Henry II in 1172, English colonization began, particularly in ...

Ireland: history 1485 to 1603
For the history of Ireland before 1485, see Ireland: history to 1154 and Ireland: history 1154 to 1485. The monarchs of the Tudor dynasty tried to extend their control over Ireland. During the reign of Henry VII Poynings' Law (1494) gave the English Parliament control over the Irish Parliament, and in 1541 Henry VIII assumed the title &...

Ireland: history 1603 to 1782
For the history of Ireland before 1603, see Ireland: history to 1154, Ireland: history 1154 to 1485, and Ireland: history 1485 to 1603. The 17th and 18th centuries saw the military triumph of the English over the Irish Catholics, marked primarily by Cromwell's Irish campaign (1649–50) and, under William (III) of Orange, the Bat...

Ireland: history 1782 to 1921
For the history of Ireland before 1603, see Ireland: history to 1154, Ireland: history 1154 to 1485, Ireland: history 1485 to 1603, and Ireland: history 1603 to 1782. The period 1782–1921 saw a Catholic-Gaelic revival, particularly following the scourge of the potato famine in the mid-19th century, with increasing emanc...

iron and steel industry
The development of the iron and steel industry and its contribution to the Industrial Revolution is described in Industrial Revolution, iron and steel

Iraq War
War in 2003 between Iraq and an international coalition led by the USA and the UK. The conflict arose over issues surrounding the disarmament process accepted by Iraq as part of peace terms concluding the 1991 Gulf War, and over Iraq's alleged support for international terrorism. The Iraqi regime, led by Saddam Hussein, collapsed when coalition...