This page gathers the 5,883 dictionary entries belonging to the domain “Computing”, as labelled by Wiktionary. Each word leads to its full entry: definitions, etymology, pronunciation, examples. Page 37 of 59: from “paddable” to “perfect information”.
- paddable adj Capable of being padded; said of a set whose strings can be transformed into infinitely many further strings in the set.
- padding noun Extra characters such as spaces added to a record to fill it out to a fixed length.
- page noun A screenful of text and possibly other content; especially, the digital simulation of one side of a paper leaf.
- page down verb To scroll down to the next page of content.
- page fault noun An alert (such as an interrupt or exception) indicating that a page of memory was accessed without being loaded.
- page table noun A data structure used by a virtual memory implementation to store the mappings between physical and virtual addresses.
- page up verb To scroll up to the previous page of content.
- pageable adj Able to be divided into pages, or navigated as pages.
- pager noun A computer program running in a text terminal, used to view (but not modify) the contents of a text file moving down the file one line or…
- paginate verb To separate (data) into batches, so that it can be retrieved with a number of smaller requests.
- pagination noun The separation of data into batches, so that it can be retrieved with a number of smaller requests.
- paging noun A transfer of pages between main memory and an auxiliary store, such as hard disk drive.
- paint noun Graphics drawn using an input device, not scanned or generated.
- paint bucket noun A tool in some graphics editor applications that fills in a portion of the image with a certain color or pattern.
- pair verb to link two electronic devices wirelessly together, especially through a protocol such as Bluetooth.
- pair programming noun A software development technique, part of extreme programming, in which two programmers work together at a single keyboard, one coding…
- palette noun A visual selection of colours, tools, commands, etc.
- palette swap verb To change the color palette used to render a palettized image.
- palette window noun A window often with miniaturized graphical user interface widgets housing a collection of related tools/commands for a particular task. The…
- palettize verb To encode (an image) efficiently by mapping its pixels to a palette containing only those colours that are actually present in the image.
- palimpsest noun Memory that has been erased and re-written.
- pane noun A portion of a user interface that typically makes up part of a larger window and may be docked or snapped into position.
- panel noun A type of GUI widget, such as a control panel.
- panic noun Ellipsis of kernel panic (“on Unix-derived operating systems: an action taken by the operating system when it cannot recover from a fatal…
- panic button noun Synonym of boss key.
- pap noun Initialism of password authentication protocol.
- paper cut noun a paper cut bug: a bug which causes harm and would be easy to fix.
- paper tape noun An early sequential digital storage medium originally used with teletype machines, consisting of a long roll of paper, each character being…
- paragraph noun An offset of 16 bytes in Intel memory architectures.
- parallel adj Involving the processing of multiple tasks at the same time.
- parallelism noun The use of parallel methods in hardware or software, so that several tasks can be performed at the same time.
- parallelize verb To make to execute in parallel.
- parameter noun An input variable of a function definition, that gets an actual value (argument) at execution time.
- parameterization noun Such parameterized representation in a computer model.
- parameterize verb To rewrite (a database query, etc.) as a template into which parameters can be inserted.
- parametric adj Of, relating to, or defined using parameters. In mathematics, this typically means related to parametrization / parametric equation.
- parametric polymorphism noun A way to make a computer language more expressive, while maintaining full static type safety, by allowing a function or a data type to be…
- paraunitary adj Of or relating to a kind of matrix that occurs in the construction of filter banks used in multirate digital systems.
- paravirtualization noun An approximate virtualization in which the emulated operating system has been modified for convenience or efficiency.
- parent verb To provide a parent object for one or more other objects, which become the children.
- parentless adj Having no parent in a data structure.
- Pareto efficient adj Describing a situation in which the profit of one party cannot be increased without reducing the profit of another.
- Pareto improvement noun A change in the allocation of a resource to a set of individuals that is an improvement for at least one and no worse for any other.
- Pareto optimal adj Describing a situation in which the profit of one party cannot be increased without reducing the profit of another.
- parity noun The count of one bits in a value, reduced to even or odd or zero or one.
- parity bit noun A bit (binary digit) used to indicate whether the number of bits in a given set with value of one is even or odd. Parity bits are used as a…
- parse noun An act of parsing; a parsing.
- parselet noun A small modular parsing object or routine (particularly in a Pratt parser) that handles a particular syntactic construct.
- parser noun A computer program that parses.
- partial adj Describing a property that holds only when an algorithm terminates.
- partial application noun The process of fixing a number of arguments to a function, producing another function of smaller arity.
- partial dependency noun An attribute of a relation that depends on a key but also on a part of such key; this is a violation of second normal form.
- partial evaluation noun A technique for program optimization by specialization, so as to produce new programs which run faster than the originals while guaranteed…
- partition noun A section of a hard disk separately formatted.
- pass noun A run through a document as part of a translation, compilation or reformatting process.
- passive attack noun An attack in which the cryptanalyst cannot interact with any of the parties involved, attempting to break the system solely based upon…
- passkey noun A cryptographic key that is tied to specific devices or cloud accounts and is meant to be used instead of a password.
- passthrough noun As of a signal through a device or network.
- password verb To protect with a password.
- password salting noun A technique employed to protect passwords stored in a database by attaching a string of 32 or more characters and then hashing them.
- paste verb To insert a piece of media (e.g. text, picture, audio, video) previously copied or cut from somewhere else.
- pasteboard noun A widget allowing multiple users to paste and share text or other items.
- patch verb To fix or improve a computer program without a complete upgrade.
- patcher noun A process or program that applies a software patch.
- path verb To navigate through a file system directory tree (to a desired file or folder).
- path length noun The number of text characters in a path (file or resource specifier).
- path tracing noun A Monte Carlo method of rendering images of three-dimensional scenes such that the global illumination is faithful to reality.
- pathfinding noun The plotting by a computer application of the best route between two points.
- pathname noun The full name of a computer file, including the names of any directories or subdirectories in the path needed to access it.
- pathological adj Having properties that cause unusually bad behaviour, especially regarding correctness or performance.
- Patricia tree noun A radix tree with radix of 2, meaning that each bit of the key is compared individually and each node is a two-way branch.
- pattern noun A text string containing wildcards, used for matching.
- pavement noun A paved surface; a hard covering on the ground.
- payload noun The functional part of a computer virus or another type of malware program, rather than the part that spreads it.
- paywall noun A system that restricts access to content with a purchase or a paid subscription.
- Pbps noun petabits per second, a measure of data transfer rate equal to 1000 terabits or 10¹⁵ bits per second.
- PC noun Initialism of program counter.
- PC Card noun A removable memory or I/O device that fits into an expansion slot on a notebook computer or a personal digital assistant (PDA). PC Cards…
- PC-compatible adj Of a computer, offering the compatibility of the IBM Personal Computer regarding software, and―to a lesser degree―hardware.
- peak verb To exceed the maximum signal amplitude of (a piece of equipment), resulting in clipping of the signal.
- PEBCAK noun Chiefly used by technical support helpdesk staff: a problem experienced with a user's computer that is due to user error.
- pebibyte noun Strictly, 2⁵⁰ (1024⁵, 1,125,899,906,842,624) bytes or 2¹⁰ (1024) tebibytes, as opposed to a petabyte.
- pedestal server noun A type of computer rack consisting of a box-like frame or a columnar support, and may include wheels for transportation.
- pedipulator noun A component mechanism which gives a robot the capability of walking; a robot having such a capability.
- peek verb To retrieve (a value) from a memory address.
- peekable adj Of a stream or other sequence: from which the next value can be retrieved without advancing the pointer from its current position.
- peekaboo card noun A kind of punch card that could be used to find records matching several categories by aligning cards for the records and retaining those…
- peer-to-peer adj Connected as equal partners and able to share processing, control and access to data and peripherals; decentralized.
- pen noun Penetration.
- pen drive noun A small electronic device used to store digital data, more portable and robust than a hard drive; a flash drive.
- pen test noun A penetration test.
- penetration test noun A test of a computer system's access control, in which a user attempts to gain access to the system without the prescribed credentials.
- pent noun A Pentium microprocessor or computer.
- pentadecathlon noun A particular oscillator that returns to its initial state after 15 generations.
- pentagraph noun A five-character sequence used to enter a single conceptual character.
- pentop noun An electronic pen-like device intended as an educational computer for use with attachable cartridges and special digital paper.
- pepper noun A randomly-generated value that is added to another value (such as a password) prior to hashing. Unlike a salt, a new one is generated for…
- percent-encode verb To convert special or reserved characters in a string (such as spaces, slashes or query symbols) into a safe format for use in URLs or…
- percent-encoding noun A method used to encode special or reserved characters in URIs and URLs by replacing them with a percent sign followed by two hexadecimal…
- perfect information noun A hypothetical condition in which all players in a game or all participants in a market have knowledge of all relevant information in the…