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


Keegan,
(Joseph) English footballer and football manager. Keegan played for Scunthorpe United 1968–71, Liverpool 1971–77, SV Hamburg (Germany) 1977–80, Southampton 1980–82, and Newcastle United 1982–84. He won nine major European and domestic trophies with Liverpool and Hambur...

keeshond
Sturdily built dog with erect ears and curled tail. It has a long grey top-coat, forming a mane around the neck, and a short, very thick undercoat, with darker `spectacles` around the eyes. The ideal height is 46 cm/18 in for dogs; 43 cm/17 in for bitches, and the ideal weight is 25–30 kg/55–66 lb

Kerry blue terrier
Compact and sturdy dog, with a soft, full coat of bluish tone. It is 46 cm/18 in high and weighs 15–17 kg/33–37.4 lb. Its ears lie close to the head and it has a thin tail that is held erect

Kenton, Stan(ley Newcomb)
US jazz pianist, composer, and bandleader. Kenton broke into West Coast jazz in 1941 with his `wall of brass` sound, noted for its mild experimentations in a self-described `progressive jazz` style. He helped introduce Afro-Cuban rhythms to US jazz, and combined jazz and classical music in compositions like `Artistr...

kenning
In Anglo-Saxon and Norse literature, a figure of speech in which a descriptive phrase is used to refer to people or objects. Well-known examples (from the Anglo-Saxon epic Beowulf) include banhus (bone house) for body, hron rad (whale road) for sea, and helmberend
Kennedy, Charles Peter
British politician, leader of the Liberal Democrat party 1999–2006. He was elected successor to Paddy Ashdown, inheriting a party that had made a huge advance into government through its coalition with the Labour Party in the Scottish Parliament. He led a strong general election campaign in May 2005, promising investment in public services and...

Ketuvim
In Judaism, collective term for the books of the Hebrew Bible, excluding those of the Torah (the first five books of the Bible) and the Nevi'im (the books of the prophets). The Ketuvim include Proverbs, Job, Psalms, and the five megillot (books such as Esther and Ruth)

ketubah
Jewish marriage contract, in which a groom promises that he will provide for the material welfare of his wife, including provision from his estate in the event of his death or divorce

kerning
Technique of altering the spacing between letters. On very large typefaces, when two letters are placed adjacent, text can look over-spaced. This effect increases with font size. Kerning allows letters to overlap slightly without touching in order to reduce the amount of space in between them. Kerning is not normally needed below 16-point t...

KGB
Secret police of the USSR, the Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti (Committee of State Security), which was in control of frontier and general security and the forced-labour system. KGB officers held key appointments in all fields of daily life, reporting to administration offices in every major town. Since the demise of the USSR in 1991, the ...

kg
Symbol for kilogram

KG
Abbreviation for Knight of the Order of the Garter

Khufu
Egyptian king of Memphis, who built the largest of the pyramids, known to the Greeks as the pyramid of Cheops (the Greek form of Khufu)

Khuzestan
Province of southwest Iran, on the northern shores of the Gulf; area 66,560 sq km/25,700 sq mi; population (1996 est) 3,746,800. It has Iran's chief oil resources. Cities include the administrative centre of Ahvaz and the ports of Abadan and Khorramshahr. A large proportion of the population is Arab. The province is often referred t...

Khomeini, Ayatollah Ruhollah
Iranian Shiite Muslim leader. Exiled from 1964 for his opposition to Shah Pahlavi, he returned when the shah left the country in 1979, and established a fundamentalist Islamic republic. His rule was marked by a protracted war with Iraq, and suppression of opposition within Iran, executing thousands of opponents

khedive
Title granted by the Turkish sultan to his Egyptian viceroy in 1867, retained by succeeding rulers until 1914

Khmer Republic
Former name (1970–76) of Cambodia

Khartoum
Capital and trading centre of Sudan, in Khartoum State, at the junction of the Blue and White Nile rivers; population (2007 est) 2,207,800. Omdurman is also a suburb of Khartoum, giving the urban area a population of over 3 million. It has long served as a major communications centre between the Arab countries of North Africa and central Africa...

Kharkov
Major city in eastern Ukraine, capital of the Kharkov oblast, 400 km/250 mi east of Kiev and 40km/25 mi south of the border with the Russian Federation; population (2003 est) 1,435,200; urban agglomeration 1,657,400. An important railway junction and industrial city, Kharkov is situated at the confluence of the Kharkov, Lopan, and U...

Khalistan
Projected independent Sikh state. See Sikhism

Khama, Seretse
Botswanan politician, prime minister of Bechuanaland in 1965, and first president of Botswana 1966–80. He founded the Bechuanaland Democratic Party in 1962 and led his country to independence in 1966. Botswana prospered under his leadership, both economically and politically, and he won every post-independence election until his death in J...

Khaddhafi, Moamer al-
Libyan revolutionary leader, in power since 1969. Charismatic and unpredictable, he set out to establish himself as leader of the Arab world. His sponsorship of anti-Western terrorist organizations and rebels in Chad the 1980s and 1990s, and attempts at territorial expansion, led to Libya's exclusion from the international community and to ...

Khrushchev, Nikita Sergeyevich
Soviet politician, secretary general of the Communist Party 1953–64, premier 1958–64. He emerged as leader from the power struggle following Stalin's death and was the first official to denounce Stalin, in 1956. His de-Stalinization programme gave rise to revolts in Poland and Hungary in 1956. Because of problems with the economy ...

Khorana, Har Gobind
Indian-born US biochemist who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1968 for his part in the interpretation of genetic code and its function in protein synthesis. In 1976 he led the team that first synthesized a biologically active gene. His work provides much of the basis for gene therapy and biotechnology

Khachaturian, Aram Il'yich
Armenian composer. His use of folk themes is shown in the ballets Gayaneh (1942), which includes the `Sabre Dance`, and Spartacus (1956)

Khyber Pass
Pass through the mountain range that separates Pakistan from Afghanistan; length 53 km/33 mi; width varies from 140 m/460 ft at its widest to about 15 m/50 ft at its narrowest. On either side are rock faces rising to a height of 915 m/3,000 ft in some places. The highest point, at Landi Kotal, is 520 m/1,700 ft higher th...

Khmer Rouge
Communist movement in Cambodia (Kampuchea) formed in the 1960s. Controlling the country 1974–78, it was responsible for mass deportations and executions under the leadership of Pol Pot. Since then it has conducted guerrilla warfare, and in 1991 gained representation in the governing body. The Khmer Rouge formed the largest opposition group to ...

Khan, Jahangir
Pakistani squash player. He won the World Open championship a record six times 1981–85 and 1988, and was World Amateur champion in 1979, 1983, and 1985. He announced his retirement in 1993. Career highlights World Open champion 1981–85, 1988 World Amateur champion 1979, 1983, 1985 British Open champion 1982–91 Khan was ten times Brit...

Khmer
The largest ethnic group in Cambodia, numbering about 7 million. Khmer minorities also live in eastern Thailand and South Vietnam. The Khmer language belongs to the Mon-Khmer family of Austro-Asiatic languages. The Khmers live mainly in agricultural and fishing villages under a chief. They practise Theravada Buddhism and trace descent throu...

Khalsa
The order or community of the Sikhs, created by Guru Gobind Singh at the festival of Baisakhi Mela in 1699. The Khalsa was originally founded as a militant group to defend the Sikh community from persecution. Initiation of both sexes is through the ceremony of Amrit Sanskar, a form of baptism. Membership is a commitment to upholding the Rahit (Sikh...

Khulna
Capital of Khulna region, southwestern Bangladesh, situated close to the Ganges delta; population (2001) 884,400. Industry includes shipbuilding and textiles; it trades in jute, rice, salt, sugar, and oilseed

Khabarovsk
(territory) Large krai (territory) in the Russian Far East; area 824,600 sq km/318,378 sq mi; population (2003) 1,466,500 (about 80% urban). The capital is Khabarovsk, and other towns include Birobidzhan, Okhotsk, Komsomolsk-na-Amure, and Sovetskaya Gavan. The territory...

Khardung Pass
Road linking the Indian town of Leh with the high-altitude military outpost on the Siachen Glacier at an altitude of 5,401 m/17,730 ft in the Karakoram range, Kashmir. It is thought to be the highest road in the world

Khoikhoi
Member of any of several peoples living in Namibia and Cape Province of South Africa. They number about 30,000. Their language is related to San (spoken by the Kung) and uses clicks for certain consonants; it belongs to the Khoisan family. The Khoikhoi once inhabited a wider area, but were driven into the Kalahari Desert by invading Bantu peopl...

Khoisan
The smallest group of languages in Africa. It includes fewer than 50 languages, spoken mainly by the people of the Kalahari Desert (including the Khoikhoi and Kung). Two languages from this group are spoken in Tanzania. The Khoisan languages are known for their click consonants (clicking sounds made with the tongue, which function as consonants)

Khashoggi, Adnan
Saudi entrepreneur and arms dealer who built up a large property company, Triad, based in Switzerland, and through ownership of banks, hotels, and real estate became a millionaire. In 1975 he was accused by the USA of receiving bribes to secure military contracts in Arab countries, and in 1986 he was financially disadvantaged by the slump in oil pr...

Khan, Aga
Islamic leader, see Aga Khan

Khakass
Republic of the Russian Federation, in southern Siberia, adjacent to Krasnoyarsk krai (territory); area 61,900 sq km/23,900 sq mi; population (1996) 586,000 (72% urban) (80% Russians, 11% Khakass). The capital is Abakan and Chernogorsk is another town. The republic is situated between the Kuznetsky Alatau Mountains in the we...

Kharkiv
Ukrainian name for Kharkov, a large city in eastern Ukraine

khanda
Symbol of Sikhism. The double-edged sword at the centre of the Sikh symbol carries the same name. The emblem is complex in its symbolism. Truth and justice, themes that have permeated Sikh history, are represented by the khanda standing upright in the centre. This is surrounded by a circle or chakar, the meaning of which is encompassed in the S...

Kitwe
Commercial centre for the Zambian copperbelt; population (2000) 363,700. It is the headquarters of the Zambia Chamber of Mines. Nkana township and copper mine is adjacent; to the south are Zambia's emerald mines. The local supplies of copper have helped the growth of an electrical equipment industry. Other industries include engineering...

Kissinger, Henry
(Alfred) German-born US diplomat. After a brilliant academic career at Harvard University, he was appointed national security adviser in 1969 by President Nixon, and was secretary of state 1973–77. His missions to the USSR and China improved US relations with both countries, and he to...

Kirov, Sergei Mironovich
Russian Bolshevik leader who joined the party in 1904 and played a prominent part in the 1918–20 civil war. As one of Stalin's closest associates, he became first secretary of the Leningrad Communist Party. His assassination, possibly engineered by Stalin, led to the political trials held during the next four years as part of the purge

Kirkwall
Administrative headquarters and port of the Orkney Islands, Scotland, on the north coast of the largest island, Mainland; population (2001) 6,200. The main industry is distilling. The Norse cathedral of St Magnus dates from 1137. The Bishop's Palace is also 12th-century, and the Earl's Palace was completed in 1606. Every Christmas a...

Kinshasa
Capital (since 1960) of the Democratic Republic of Congo on the Congo River, 400 km/250 mi inland from the port of Matadi; population (2004 est) 7,273,900. Industries include ship-building and repairing, chemicals, textiles, engineering, food processing, and furniture. It was founded by the explorer Henry Morton Stanley in 1881. The Nat...

Kinnock, Neil Gordon
British Labour politician, party leader 1983–92 and European Union commissioner 1995–2004. As party leader, succeeding his ally Michael Foot, he moderated his strongly left-wing position and made Labour a centre-left mainstream party once again. He expelled members of the hard-l...

Kingston upon Hull
(UK) Port and administrative centre of Kingston upon Hull City unitary authority in northeast England, where the river Hull flows into the north side of the Humber estuary, 90 km/56 mi east of Leeds; population (2001) 243,600. Hull has been a flourishing port for 700 years, and there a...

Kingston
(Jamaica) Capital, largest city, and principal port of Jamaica, West Indies, on the southeast coast; population (2002 est) 583,900. It is the cultural and commercial centre of the island. Industries include tourism, textiles, petroleum products, and clothing, while major exports are agricu...

King, W(illiam) L(yon) Mackenzie
Canadian Liberal prime minister 1921–26, 1926–30, and 1935–48. He maintained the unity of the English- and French-speaking populations, and was instrumental in establishing equal status for Canada with the UK. Emphasizing Canada's independence from the UK In 1925 King's request to Governor General Byng to dissolve par...

King, Martin Luther, Jr
Click images to enlargeUS civil-rights campaigner, black leader, and Baptist minister. He first came to national attention as leader of the Montgomery, Alabama, bus boycott of 1955–56, and was one of the organizers of the march of 200,000 people on Washington, DC in 1963 to demand racial equality, during which he...

Kimberley
(South Africa) Diamond-mining capital city of Northern Cape Province, South Africa, 153 km/95 mi northwest of Bloemfontein, and 1,223 m/4,012 ft above sea level; population (2001) 211,000. Its mines have been controlled by De Beers Consolidated Mines since 1887. It is an import...

kilo-
Prefix denoting multiplication by 1,000, as in kilohertz, a unit of frequency equal to 1,000 hertz

Kim Il Sung
North Korean communist politician and marshal. He became prime minister in 1948 and led North Korea in the Korean War 1950–53. He became president in 1972, retaining the presidency of the Communist Workers' party. He liked to be known as the `Great Leader` and campaigned constantly for the reunification of Korea. His son Kim Jong...

Kilkenny
(county) County of the Republic of Ireland, in the province of Leinster; county town Kilkenny; area 2,060 sq km/795 sq mi; population (2002) 80,340. It has the rivers Nore, Suir, and Barrow, the highest point being Brandon Hill (516 m/1,693 ft). Industries include clothing,...

Kildare
County of the Republic of Ireland, in the province of Leinster; county town Naas; area 1,690 sq km/ 652 sq mi; population (2002) 163,950. The principal rivers are the Barrow, the Boyne, the Lesser Barrow, and the Liffey. Kildare is wet and boggy in the north with extensive grassy plains and rolling hills, and includes part of the Bo...

Kigali
Capital of Rwanda, 80 km/50 mi east of Lake Kivu, and just south of the Equator; population (2001 est) 327,700. It is an important centre for trade in local produce, including coffee, cattle, cassiterite (tin ore), and tungsten. Manufacturing industries include textiles, chemicals, tin-processing, paints, and cigarettes. History Kigali ...

Kiev
Capital and largest city of Ukraine, situated at the confluence of the Desna and Dnieper rivers; population (2003 est) 2,588,400; urban agglomeration 3,296,100. Kiev was the capital of Russia in the Middle Ages. It is a major industrial centre, producing chemicals, clothing, leather goods, machine tools, electronic, optical, and electrical ...

kidnapping
The abduction of a person against his or her will. It often involves holding persons for ransom. It may also take place in child-custody disputes or involve psychosexual motives

Kiel
Baltic port and capital of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany; population (2005 est) 234,400. It is a naval and commercial facility. Chief industries include fishing, marine engineering, ship-repairing, electronics, engineering, food-processing, and tourism. It is at the terminus of the Kiel Canal. Kiel Week in June is a major yachting ven...

kibbutz
Israeli communal collective settlement with collective ownership of all property and earnings, collective organization of work and decision-making, and communal housing for children. A modified version, the Moshav Shitufi, is similar to the collective farms that were typical of...

Kiangsi
Alternative spelling of Jiangxi, a province of China

Kiangsu
Alternative spelling of Jiangsu, a province of China

Kitchener, Horatio
(Herbert) Irish soldier and administrator. He defeated the Sudanese at the Battle of Omdurman in 1898 and reoccupied Khartoum. In South Africa, he was commander-in-chief 1900–02 during the Boer War, and he commanded the f...

Kitakyushu
Industrial port city in Fukuoka prefecture, on the Hibiki Sea, north Kyushu island, Japan; population (2005) 993,500. Kitakyushu, which means `north Kyushu city`, was formed in 1963 by the amalgamation of Moji, Kokura, Tobata, Yawata, and Wakamatsu. Industries include food-processing and the manufacture of appliances, ceramics, an...

kimono
Traditional Japanese costume. Worn in the Heian period (more than 1,000 years ago), it is still used by women for formal wear and informally by men. For the finest kimonos a rectangular piece of silk (about 11 m/36 ft x 0.5 m/1.5 ft) is cut into seven pieces for tailoring. The design (which must match perfectly over the seams and for which ...

Kidd, `Captain` William
Scottish pirate. He spent his youth privateering for the British against the French off the North American coast, and in 1695 was given a royal commission to suppress piracy in the Indian Ocean. Instead, he joined a group of pirates in Madagascar. In 1699, on his way to Boston, Massachusetts, he was arrested, taken to England, and hanged. His execu...

kiwi
Flightless bird found only in New Zealand. It has long hairlike brown plumage, minute wings and tail, and a very long beak with nostrils at the tip. It is nocturnal and insectivorous. It lays one or two white eggs per year, each weighing up to 450 g/15.75 oz. (Species Apteryx australis&l...

kite
(zoology) Any of a group of birds of prey found in all parts of the world. Kites have long, pointed wings and, usually, a forked tail. There are about 20 species. (Family Accipitridae, order Falconiformes.)

kingfisher
Click images to enlargeAny of a group of heavy-billed birds found near streams, ponds, and coastal areas around the world. The head is exceptionally large, and the long, angular bill is keeled; the tail and wings are relatively short, and the legs very short, with short toes. Kingfishers plunge-dive for fish a...

king crab
Marine arthropod found on the Atlantic coast of North America, and the coasts of Asia. The upper side of the body is entirely covered with a dark, rounded shell, and it has a long spinelike tail. It is up to 60 cm/2 ft long. It is unable to swim, and lays its eggs in the sand at the high-wate...

killer whale
Click images to enlargeToothed whale belonging to the dolphin family, found in all seas of the world. It is black on top, white below, and grows up to 9 m/30 ft long. It is the only whale that has been observed to prey on other whales, as well as on seals and seabirds. (Species Orcinus orca, family ...

kidney
Click images to enlargeIn vertebrates, one of a pair of organs responsible for fluid regulation, excretion of waste products, and maintaining the ionic composition of the blood – in other words the regulation of the concentrations of some chemicals in the blood. The kidneys are situated on the rear wall of the abdome...

kiwi fruit
Fruit of a vinelike plant grown commercially on a large scale in New Zealand. Kiwi fruits are egg-sized, oval, and similar in flavour to gooseberries, though much sweeter, with a fuzzy brown skin. (Actinidithia chinensis, family Actinidiaceae.)

kinkajou
Central and South American carnivorous mammal belonging to the raccoon family. Yellowish-brown, with a rounded face and slim body, the kinkajou grows to 55 cm/1.8 ft with a 50 cm/1.6 ft tail, and has short legs with sharp claws. It spends its time in trees and has a prehensile tail, which it uses as an extra limb when moving from branch...

kinship
In anthropology, human relationship based on blood or marriage, and sanctified by law and custom. Kinship forms the basis for most human societies and for such social groupings as the family, clan, or tribe. The social significance of kinship varies from society to society. Most human societies have evolved strict social rules, customs, and taboos ...

kinetics
(physics) Branch of dynamics dealing with the action of forces producing or changing the motion of a body; kinematics deals with motion without reference to force or mass

Kiswahili
Another name for the Swahili language

kingdom
Primary division in biological classification. At one time, only two kingdoms were recognized: animals and plants. Today most biologists prefer a five-kingdom system, even though it still involves grouping together organisms that are probably unrelated. One widely accepted scheme is as follows: Kingdom Animalia (all multicellular animal...

kimberlite
Igneous rock that is ultramafic (containing very little silica); a type of alkaline peridotite with a porphyritic texture (larger crystals in a fine-grained matrix), containing mica in addition to olivine and other minerals. Kimberlite represents the world's principal source of diamonds. Kimberlite is found in carrot-shaped pipelike...

Kitchener
City in southwestern Ontario, Canada, 96 km/60 mi west of Toronto and 145 km/90 mi northwest of the Niagara Falls; population (2001 est) 190,400; population of metropolitan area (with Waterloo) 414,300. It lies at an altitude of 335 m/1,099 ft in the fertile valley of the Grand River, and is twinned with the neighbouring city of...

kiln
High-temperature furnace used for drying timber, roasting metal ores, or for making cement, bricks, and pottery. Ceramic kilns include early kilns, such as bonfire, sawdust, and wood-fired kilns, which have their roots in primitive cultures; and modern kilns, such as electric-, gas-, and oil-fired kilns, used in both the art...

Kingsley, Charles
English author. A rector, he was known as the `Chartist clergyman` because of such social novels as Yeast (1848) and Alton Locke (1850). His historical novels include Westward Ho! (1855) and Hereward the Wake (1866). He also wrote, for children, The W...

kilowatt-hour
Commercial unit of electrical energy, defined as the work done by a power of 1,000 watts in one hour and equal to 3.6 megajoules. It is used to calculate the cost of electrical energy taken from the domestic supply

King, Stephen
(Edwin) US writer of best-selling horror novels with small-town or rural settings. Many of his works have been filmed, including Carrie (1974), The Shining (1977), Christine (1983), Misery (1987), and an adapta...

Kiel Canal
Waterway connecting the Baltic with the North Sea; 96 km/60 mi long. It provides passage for ocean-going vessels. Built by Germany in the years before World War I, the canal allowed the German navy to move from its Baltic bases to the open sea without travelling through international waters. It was declared an international waterway by ...

Kiribati
Republic in the west central Pacific Ocean, comprising three groups of coral atolls: the 16 Gilbert Islands, 8 uninhabited Phoenix Islands, 8 of the 11 Line Islands, and the volcanic island of Banaba. Government Kiribati's 1979 constitution provides for a popularly elected president, the Bere...

kinetic energy
The energy of a body resulting from motion. A moving body has kinetic energy. This energy is equal to the work that would have to be done in bringing the body to rest, and is dependent on both the body's mass and speed. The kinetic energy in joules of a mass m kilograms travelling with speed v metres per se...

kinetics
(chemistry) Branch of chemistry that investigates the rates of chemical reactions. Kinetics is taught as a part of physical chemistry, but its main use is to investigate mechanisms in other disciplines, including organic, inorganic, and biochemistry

Kingstown
(St Vincent and the Grenadines) Capital and principal port of St Vincent and the Grenadines, West Indies, in the southwest of the island of St Vincent; population (2003 est) 13,500. The port has a deep-water harbour; exports include bananas, coconuts, and arrowroot

Kitasato, Shibasaburo
Japanese bacteriologist who discovered the plague bacillus while investigating an outbreak of plague in Hong Kong. He was the first to grow the tetanus bacillus in pure culture. He and German bacteriologist Emil von Behring discovered that increasing nonlethal doses of tetanus toxin give immunity to the disease

King, Billie Jean
US tennis player. She won a record 20 Wimbledon titles 1961–79 and 39 Grand Slam titles, and fought for equal treatment and equal pay for women tennis players. In 1973 she formed the Women's Tennis Association and the Players' Union. In 1974, with Olympic swimmer Donna de Varona and others, she created the Women's Sports Foundation...

Kirghiz
Member of a pastoral people numbering approximately 1.5 million. The Kirghiz live in Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, China (Xinjiang), and Afghanistan (Wakhan corridor). They are Sunni Muslims, and their Turkic language belongs to the Altaic family. The most isolated group, because of its geographical situation and its international border prob...

Kitaj, R(onald) B(rooks)
US painter and graphic artist, who spent much of his working life in Britain. His work was mainly figurative, employing a wide range of allusions to art, history, and literature, and reflected the pop art and abstract expressionist movements of the time. The Autumn of Central Paris (After Walter Benjamin) (1972–74) is a typi...

Kikuyu
Member of the dominant ethnic group in Kenya, numbering about 3 million. The Kikuyu are primarily cultivators of millet, although many have entered the professions. Their language belongs to the Bantu branch of the Niger-Congo family. The basic unit of Kikuyu society is the large family group, which lives on its own plot of land originally acqu...

kilobyte
In computing, a unit of memory equal to 1,024 bytes. It is sometimes used, less precisely, to mean 1,000 bytes. In the metric system, the prefix `kilo-` denotes multiplication by 1,000 (as in kilometre, a unit equal to 1,000 metres). However, computer memory size is based on the binary number system, and the most convenient binary equ...

Kim Young Sam
South Korean democratic politician, president 1993–98. In 1990 he merged his Reunification Democratic Party with the ruling conservative Democratic Justice Party to form the Democratic Liberal Party (DLP), and was elected president in December 1992. As president, he encouraged greater political openness, some deregulation of the economy, and a...

kilogram
SI unit of mass equal to 1,000 grams (2.24 lb). It is defined as a mass equal to that of the international prototype, a platinum-iridium cylinder held at the International Bureau of Weights and Measures in Sèvres, France

kilometre
Unit of length equal to 1,000 metres, equivalent to 3,280.89 ft or 0.6214 (about 5/8) of a mile

kilowatt
Unit of power equal to 1,000 watts or about 1.34 horsepower. If an electrical appliance has a power rating of 1 kW, it will change 1000 J of electrical energy into other forms of energy every second; for example, a 1 kW electric heater changes 1000 J of electrical energy into 1000 J of heat energy every second it is turned on

kinetic theory
Theory describing the physical properties of matter in terms of the behaviour – principally movement – of its component atoms or molecules. It states that all matter is made up of very small particles that are in constant motion, and can be used to explain the properties of solids, liquids, and gases, as well as changes of state. In a sol...