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 5 of 59: from “beachball” to “black screen of death”.
- beachball verb To hang; to stop responding to user input; (used of Mac computers, where this is indicated by a spinning coloured cursor like a beach ball).
- beaconing noun A continuous signaling of error conditions on a LAN, or small packets on a wireless LAN (WLAN).
- beam verb To transmit, especially by direct wireless means such as infrared.
- beautify verb Synonym of pretty-print.
- bebugging noun A technique for measuring test coverage by adding bugs to a program and tasking the tester with finding them.
- bed noun The flat surface of a scanner on which a document is placed to be scanned.
- beehive noun In Conway's Game of Life, a particular still life pattern with a rounded appearance.
- beep noun Synonym of bell (“bell character”).
- beerware noun Software that can be used under a relaxed licence, with the user encouraged to pay for the software by donating to its author enough money…
- behavioral subtyping noun A subtype relation of the form that each subtype object satisfies the specification of the supertype.
- beige box noun A desktop computer in the style typical of personal computers of the 1980s and 1990s, having a boxy off-white case and CRT monitor.
- bell noun The bell character.
- bell character noun A control character with the value seven (Unicode code point U+0007, ASCII 0x07), originally used to ring a bell on telegraphy equipment to…
- Bellman-Ford algorithm noun An algorithm that computes single-source shortest paths in a weighted digraph, capable (unlike the faster Dijkstra's algorithm) of handling…
- below the fold prep_phrase Far enough down that it is not likely to be visible in the initial display of a window or screen, such that the end user will probably have…
- benchmark noun A computer program that is executed to assess the performance of the runtime environment.
- benevolent dictator for life noun The leader of an open-source software project, typically project founders, who retains the final say in disputes or arguments within the…
- bento noun A menu icon of nine squares in a grid.
- Beowulf cluster noun A cluster of standard personal computers linked by a local area network, usually on the order of 10 nodes.
- beta verb To preliminarily release computer software for initial testing prior to final release.
- beta reduction noun One of the three rewrite rules of the lambda calculus, which states that the application of a lambda abstraction (λx.t) to a term s yields…
- beta testing noun A form of software testing, after the alpha testing stage, involving a limited audience of external users.
- beta version noun An early version of a program or application that contains most of the major features, but is not yet complete. Sometimes these versions…
- Bézier curve noun A type of parametric curve defined by a set of control points, two of which are the ends of the curve, while the others determine its shape.
- BFI noun Reliance on raw computing power (rather than, for example, an efficient algorithm).
- bicartesian closed category noun A Cartesian closed category which also has an initial object and such that for any pair of objects, A and B, in the category, the category…
- bifid cipher noun A classical cipher that combines the Polybius square with transposition, and uses fractionation to achieve diffusion.
- bifunctor noun A functor whose domain is a product of categories.
- bifurcation noun A command that executes one block or other of commands depending on the result of a condition.
- big agile noun The application of agile principles and practices to larger, complex projects, often with teams working from multiple locations.
- big bang testing noun A form of integration testing in which the individual modules are linked together and tested as a whole, without first being tested…
- big box noun Software supplied in a large box made from card, typical of the 1990s.
- big iron noun Large, expensive, powerful computers such as mainframes.
- big O notation noun A particular notation, useful in the analysis of algorithms, which describes the limiting behavior of a function when the argument tends…
- big-endian adj Storing the most significant byte of a multibyte number at a lower address than the least significant byte; that is, "big end" first.
- bignum noun A number whose digits of precision are limited only by available memory (as opposed to the usual fixed-point arithmetic).
- bikeshed verb To discuss a minor detail rather than focusing on more important issues.
- bilattice noun A structure B = (S,⊑₁ ,⊑₂) in which S is a non-empty set, and ⊑₁ and ⊑₂ are partial orderings each giving S the structure of a lattice…
- bilevel noun A binary image, one that has only two possible values for each pixel (usually black and white).
- billboard noun A sprite that always faces the screen, no matter which direction it is viewed from.
- billboarded adj Displayed using the billboarding technique.
- billboarding noun A technique in three-dimensional graphics in which a sprite is rendered perpendicular to the camera without respect to camera movement.
- binarization noun Conversion of a tree to one with at most two children per node.
- binary noun The bijective base-2 numeral system, which uses only the digits 0 and 1.
- binary blob noun A piece of software which is only available as a binary file (as opposed to being open-source), thus making the program very difficult to…
- binary code noun A code that uses the binary digits (1 and 0), usually in groups of eight, to represent characters, machine instructions or other data.
- binary distribution noun A distribution of software containing executable binaries, without source code.
- binary file noun A computer file that is not a text file, consisting of data other than human-readable text.
- binary large object noun A data type that allows storage of binary data often of indeterminate length, used for example to embed multimedia within a database table.
- binary numeral system noun A system for representing numbers in which a radix of two is used; that is, each digit in a binary numeral may have either of two different…
- binary search noun A search for a value within a sorted array by repeatedly comparing the target value with the middle element; if they are unequal, the half…
- binary system noun A numeric system with a base of 2, using only the numerals 0 and 1.
- binary tree noun A data structure in which each node has at most two children, each node but the root has one parent, and there are no cycles.
- binary-coded decimal noun A decimal number encoded in such a way that each decimal digit is represented by its own binary sequence, simplifying conversion between…
- bind verb To associate an identifier with a value; to associate a variable name, method name, etc. with the content of a storage location.
- binder noun A software mechanism that performs binding.
- bindful adj Having the limitation of requiring textures to be bound by the CPU to a particular slot in a fixed-size table before the GPU can use them.
- binding noun The association of a named item with an element of a program.
- binding time noun The point in time when symbolic references to data are converted into physical machine addresses.
- bindless adj Not having the limitation of requiring textures to be bound by the CPU to a particular slot in a fixed-size table before the GPU can use…
- binning noun The process of downscaling a digital image (or any array) by combining blocks of adjacent elements by taking the sum, average, median…
- biochip noun A microchip made from biological macromolecules (especially DNA) rather than a semiconductor.
- biocomputer noun Any of several proposed systems using DNA, proteins, or other biological materials to perform data processing (in synthetic biology).
- biocomputing noun The design and construction of computers containing biological components.
- biocuration noun The organization, representation and making accessible of biological data to both humans and computers
- bioinformatics noun A field of science in which biology, computer science, and information technology merge into a single discipline to analyse biological…
- bios noun Acronym of Basic Input/Output System.
- birds-of-a-feather session noun An informal discussion group, typically at a conference, based on a shared interest and without any fixed agenda.
- bisect verb To perform a binary search on files in source control in order to identify the specific change that introduced a bug etc.
- bisection noun The act of bisecting.
- bistable noun A flip-flop.
- bit noun A binary digit, generally represented as a 1 or 0.
- bit banging noun A technique for serial communications using software instead of dedicated hardware. The software directly sets and samples the state of…
- bit bashing noun Any programming technique manipulating bits (binary digits). instead of whole words.
- bit bucket noun A container for holding chad (“small punched-out pieces of paper”) from paper tape or punch cards used with teleprinters, early computers…
- bit nibbler noun A computer program that defeats some copy protection schemes by reading a disk one bit at a time, and directly interacting with the disk…
- bit rot noun The putative tendency of content in storage to become corrupt over time.
- bit shift noun A bitwise operation in which the bits in a value are shifted left or right.
- bit slice noun Any of a group of variable-length words that may be combined to form computable lengths of bits of any length
- bit time noun The amount of time it takes for one bit to be ejected from a network interface card operating at a predefined standard speed.
- bit-compressed adj Represented by the minimum number of bits that can represent the maximum value (of an integer variable)
- bit-count integrity noun The condition of a copy of a message having the same number of bits as the source message.
- bitboard noun A specialized data structure, a bitset with each bit representing a game position or state, commonly used in computer systems that play…
- bitemporal adj Keeping track of two timelines
- biter noun Something (a data unit, machine etc.) with a width of a specified amount of bits.
- bitflip noun The switching of a bit's value (from 1 to 0, or vice versa).
- bitmap noun A series of bits that represents a rasterized graphic image, each pixel being represented as a group of bits.
- bitmask noun A pattern of bits indicating which bits in a second pattern are to be modified.
- bitness noun The architecture of a computer system or program in terms of how many bits (binary digits) compose the basic values it can evaluate.
- bitonic adj Having the property x_0≤⋯≤x_k≥⋯≥x_n-1 for some k,0≤k<n, or being a circular shift of such a sequence.
- bitplane noun The set of bits stored at the same relative position in each byte and thus having comparable effects on the overall data, used for sound…
- bitrate noun The frequency at which bits (binary digits) pass a given physical or metaphorical point, measured in bps (bits per second).
- bitstream noun A stream of bits (binary digits).
- bitter noun A hardware system whose architecture is based around units of the specified number of bits (binary digits).
- bivariant adj Both covariant and contravariant.
- bixie noun A type of emoticon such as <@_@>, which represents an unrotated expression, unlike a smiley.
- black hat noun A malicious hacker, one who violates computer security out of malice or for personal gain.
- black hole noun A bit bucket; a place of permanent oblivion for data.
- black MIDI noun A style of music composition involving the creation of MIDI files where extreme numbers of musical notes are played simultaneously.
- black screen of death noun A critical system error encountered by computer operating systems, characterized by the display of a completely black screen and the…