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 38 of 59: from “performant” to “pointless”.
- performant adj Characterized by a level of performance or efficiency that is adequate for or exceeds the expectations of end users.
- peripheral noun A peripheral device.
- peripheral brain noun Any hardware (i.e. handheld, computer, laptop) containing vast amounts of information, which is in constant flux and is important to the…
- peripheral device noun An electronic device that is outside the computer's system unit (external to the computer's enclosing case), but used by the computer to…
- Perlin noise noun Random-looking visual noise generated by a function, widely used in computer graphics to simulate effects such as fire and clouds.
- perm noun Permission
- permission noun Flags or access control lists pertaining to a file that dictate who can access it, and how.
- permutation box noun A method of permuting or transposing bits (binary digits) across S-box inputs while retaining diffusion.
- perpendicular recording noun A technique of creating magnetic data storage using vertical as opposed to longitudinal magnetization.
- perplexity noun A measure of the accuracy with which a probability distribution or model predicts a sample.
- persist verb To cause to persist; make permanent.
- persistence noun Of data, the property of continuing to exist after the termination of the program.
- persistent adj Of data or a data structure: not transient or temporary, but remaining in existence after the termination of the program that creates it.
- persistent cookie noun A small data file that a website saves on a user's device and which remains there even after the browser is closed, lasting until an…
- personalization noun The configuration of a software product to suit the needs or tastes of one specific user.
- pessimism noun The condition of being pessimal.
- pessimistic adj Taking out exclusive locks on data to prevent conflicts with other processes that might modify it.
- pessimistic concurrency noun A database management system strategy that locks data in order to prevent conflicts between transactions.
- pessimization noun A change to program code that makes it less efficient, the opposite of an optimization.
- petabit noun One quadrillion (10¹⁵, or 1,000,000,000,000,000) bits or 1,000 terabits.
- petabyte noun A pebibyte.
- petaflop noun a quadrillion (10¹⁵) floating point operations per second.
- PEX noun PHIGS Extension to X: an early Unix 3D graphics API.
- pharming noun The redirection of traffic for one website to another, with intent to deceive.
- phishing noun The malicious act of keeping a false website or sending a false e-mail with the intent of masquerading as a trustworthy entity in order to…
- phonebook noun A large lookup table.
- phoneputer noun A smartphone used for the tasks traditionally done by computer, rather than for telephone calls etc.
- Phong lighting noun A technique for the local illumination of points on a surface, approximating the way that light is reflected in reality.
- Phong shading noun A technique for shading three-dimensional surfaces by interpolating surface normals across rasterized polygons and computing pixel colors…
- photobash verb To compose a digital image from multiple assets, such as photos and 3D models, with artistic interpretation to modify and blend them…
- photon mapping noun A two-pass global illumination rendering algorithm that approximately solves the rendering equation for integrating light radiance at a…
- photoshop verb To digitally edit or alter (a picture or photograph).
- phy noun An electronic circuit implementing the physical layer of the OSI model.
- physical memory protection noun In the RISC-V instruction set architecture, a mechanism that allows for controlling the privileges of different regions of physical memory.
- physically based animation noun An animation technique focusing on creating physically accurate visual effects, such as particles.
- picker noun Any user interface control that selects something.
- pickle verb To serialize.
- pickler noun (in the Python programming language) A program or algorithm that performs serialization.
- picklist noun A list from which the user can make a selection; a dropdown list.
- picture noun A format string in the COBOL programming language.
- picture-in-picture noun A feature where video content floats over the web page as a separate element.
- pie menu noun A circular context menu, resembling a pie chart, whose slices represent commands, each equidistant from the centre of the menu.
- piece table noun A data structure consisting of an original document and a series of insertions and deletions referring back to parts of the original or…
- pigpen noun The pigpen cipher.
- pigpen cipher noun A geometric simple substitution cipher, which exchanges letters for symbols which are fragments of a grid.
- pill noun A rounded rectangle containing a brief text caption indicating the tag or category that an item belongs to.
- pilot version noun A preliminary, functional, or near-final version of a product, software, or program launched on a limited scale to test its feasibility…
- pin verb To attach (an icon, application, message etc.) to another item so that it persists.
- pinfeed noun A kind of dot matrix printer equipped to take paper with holes running along each side for alignment.
- ping noun A packet which a remote host is expected to echo, thus indicating its presence.
- pinhole noun A port left unprotected by a firewall to allow a particular application to gain access to a service.
- pinnable adj Capable of being pinned (attached to part of the screen display).
- pipe verb To directly feed (the output of one program) as input to another program, indicated by the pipe character (|) at the command line.
- pipe key noun The key on a keyboard that produces the vertical bar symbol.
- pipeline verb To design (a microchip etc.) so that processing takes place in efficient stages, the output of each stage being fed as input to the next.
- pitfall noun An antipattern.
- pivot noun An element of a set to be sorted that is chosen as a midpoint, so as to divide the other elements into two groups to be dealt with…
- pivot table noun A summary table used for automatic sorting, counting and averaging of the data in another table or spreadsheet.
- pixel art noun A style of digital art drawn at the pixel level, sometimes having the pixels enlarged for a retro appearance.
- pixel-perfect adj Having precise dimension ratios in all aspects on well-defined drawing glyphs.
- pixelization noun The result of enlarging a digital image further than the resolution of the monitor device, usually 72 dpi (dots per inch), causing the…
- pixmap noun A grid of pixels; a bitmap, especially one having more than one bit (binary digit) assigned to each pixel, allowing for multiple shades or…
- pizza box noun A wide, flat, square style of computer chassis, similar in shape to a pizza delivery box.
- placeholder noun A non-editable caption initially displayed in a blank text box to indicate its function.
- plain adj Containing no extended or nonprinting characters (especially in plain text).
- plain text noun Text or any data that is to be encrypted (as opposed to ciphertext).
- plane noun Any of 17 designated ranges of 2¹⁶ (65,536) sequential code points each.
- planning poker noun A consensus-based technique for estimating development time (or other goals) in which participants lay down numbered cards to indicate…
- plasma noun A visual effect in which cycles of changing colours are warped in various ways to give the illusion of liquid organic movement.
- platform noun A particular operating system or environment such as a database or other specific software; a particular type of computer or…
- platform-independent adj Of computer software or computing methods and concepts: implemented such that they can operate on any of various computer platforms.
- platter noun One of possibly many disks on which data is stored in a mechanical hard drive.
- playblast noun A low-resolution crude render of computer-generated imagery used in CGI production as a check for character and prop positioning and…
- player noun A software application that plays audio or video media, such as a media player.
- Playfair noun Ellipsis of Playfair cipher.
- playground noun A sandbox for testing calls to an application programming interface.
- playlist noun A list of tracks or videos to be played in a particular sequence, as from an audio CD or a streaming service.
- plenum noun A type of network cabling which satisfies a given plenum rating for the purpose of fire safety.
- plex noun A designated portion of a disk, usually set up to mirror some of the contents.
- pling noun The symbol ! (an exclamation mark).
- plotter noun An output device that draws graphs and other pictorial images on paper, sometimes using attached pens.
- plug and play adj Of or pertaining to plug and play; characterized by an ease of use or installation.
- plug in noun A module or device that interacts with another to add a specific feature or function.
- plugfest noun An event during which hardware devices are tested for interoperability with emerging standards by physically connecting them together.
- plumbing noun The set of Git commands, such as and , which control the low-level state of the repository, typically not intended to be used in ordinary…
- plussed adj Containing a plus sign.
- PNP noun Initialism of plug and play.
- pod slurping noun The illicit copying of data from an unattended personal computer by plugging in a portable storage device
- podule noun An expansion mechanism for ARM-based computer systems, generally a Eurocard-compatible printed circuit board that plugs into a backplane…
- point verb To direct the central processing unit to seek information at a certain location in memory.
- point of contact noun A person who is associated with a defined Internet entity.
- point release noun A software release that is only slightly different from a previous version and thus having the same major version number, only differing in…
- point-and-click adj With which the user interacts by pointing and clicking, using a mouse or similar device.
- point-and-drool adj Synonym of point-and-click (implying that such a user interface is preferred by unintelligent, technically incompetent people)
- point-free adj Employing or relating to tacit programming.
- pointcut noun In aspect-oriented programming, a set of join points specifying when advice should run during execution.
- pointel noun Any of the eight vertices of a voxel.
- pointer noun A variable that holds the address of a memory location where a value can be stored.
- pointerlike adj Like a pointer (variable holding a memory address).
- pointless adj Point-free; employing the tacit programming paradigm.