This page gathers the 9,098 dictionary entries belonging to the domain “Engineering”, as labelled by Wiktionary. Each word leads to its full entry: definitions, etymology, pronunciation, examples. Page 44 of 91: from “last known good” to “line break”.
- last known good phrase The most recent configuration that works properly, used to roll back changes that might later prove problematic.
- last mile noun The portion of the infrastructure that carries communication signals from the main system to the end user's business or home, often…
- lat noun A staff, particularly one of an Indian kind.
- latch noun An electronic circuit that is like a flip-flop, except that it is level triggered instead of edge triggered.
- latch-up noun A kind of short circuit caused by the inadvertent creation of a low-impedance path between the power supply rails of a MOSFET circuit.
- latency noun A delay, an interval between the initiation of something and the occurrence.
- latency time noun A time delay between the cause and effect of a physical change in a system that is being observed.
- lathe noun A machine tool used to shape a piece of material, or workpiece, by rotating the workpiece against a cutting tool.
- launch verb To start (a program or feature); to execute or bring into operation.
- launch window noun The specific time period during which a rocket or spacecraft may be launched in order to achieve its mission.
- launcher noun An application that launches another or others, often holding icons or menus for frequently used programs.
- launder verb To obtain a pointer to an object created in storage occupied by an existing object of the same type, even if it has const or reference…
- law noun A mode of operation of the flight controls of a fly-by-wire aircraft.
- lawbot noun A piece of software designed to complete minor but repetitive legal tasks automatically or on command.
- layback noun The process of recording the final sound onto the master track.
- layer noun One in a stack of (initially transparent) drawing surfaces that comprise an image; used to keep elements of an image separate so that they…
- layout noun A map or a drawing of a construction site showing the position of roads, buildings or other constructions.
- lazy adj Employing lazy evaluation; not calculating results until they are immediately required.
- lazy eight noun An aerobatic maneuver consisting of 1/4 looping up, wingover (left or right), 1/2 looping down+up, wingover (right or left), 1/4 looping…
- lazy evaluation noun Any of a variety of computing techniques that delay the computation of expressions until (and unless) the results are needed.
- lazy girl job noun A job that is well paying, does not demand long hours or too much effort, and can often be done remotely.
- lazy initialisation noun A creational design pattern that uses the tactic of delaying an expensive process, like the creation of an object, until the first time it…
- lead noun The distance of haul, as from a cutting to an embankment.
- lead-lag noun In helicopters, the movement of main rotor blades in the plane of rotation due to the inward and outward shifting of their centres of…
- leader noun The drive wheel in any kind of machinery.
- leaderboard noun An advertisement on a web page spanning the width of the page and shallow in height.
- leading edge noun The frontmost edge of a wing or other airfoil of an aircraft; sometimes contains slots or slats.
- leaf noun In a tree, a node that has no descendants.
- leaf node noun A node, in a tree, that has no children.
- leafwise adj In terms of the leaves of a tree or similar data structure.
- leak noun The gradual loss of a system resource caused by failure to deallocate previously reserved portions.
- leaky bucket noun A counter or variable that is incremented whenever an event of interest occurs, and also periodically decremented; used in algorithms to…
- leaning toothpick syndrome noun The situation in which a quoted string expression becomes difficult to read because it contains a large number of escape characters…
- leans noun A dangerous sensory illusion where the pilot of an aircraft believes themselves to be in a bank when they are actually wings-level, or…
- leap smearing noun The handling of a leap second by gradually distorting hours of surrounding time, rather than changing the system clock by a whole second at…
- lease verb To assign a temporary IP address to (a networked device).
- least significant bit noun The bit (binary digit) that represents the smallest fraction of a value, its position depending on the endianness of the system.
- least significant byte noun The byte of a multibyte number with the least importance: that is, the byte stored last on a big-endian system or first on a little-endian…
- left inverse noun For a given morphism f : X → Y, its right inverse (if it has one) is a morphism s : Y → X such that s∘f= mbox id_X.
- left outer join noun A join yielding a set of records for two tables, where all rows of the "left" table are enlisted with all rows of the "right" table, even…
- left shift noun A bit shift to the left, in which all of the bits of an operand are shifted by a given number of positions to the left.
- left-click verb To press the left button on a computer mouse.
- leg noun A branch or lateral circuit connecting an instrument with the main line.
- legacy adj Left over from the past; old and no longer current.
- legacy system noun An old computer system or application program that continues to be used because the user (typically an organization) does not want to…
- legacy-free adj Lacking certain older components such as a floppy disk drive, legacy ports, and ISA or other expansion bus.
- legalizer noun A tool that takes invalid input and creates valid output, such as for chip placement to move digital standard cell gates into legal…
- LEM noun Originally Lunar Excursion Module, latterly Lunar Module.
- length operator noun An operator that returns the length of a string in bytes, characters, or code points, or the number of consecutive numerically indexed…
- lens noun An object, usually made of glass, that focuses or defocuses the light that passes through it.
- lerp verb To interpolate linearly.
- let down noun The clearance of an aircraft to descend through clouds to clear air below, or the process of granting such a clearance.
- let off noun A device for letting off, releasing, or giving forth, as the warp from the cylinder of a loom.
- let through noun A transient voltage spike that is allowed to pass through a power conditioning unit to the load
- letter bomb noun A virus contained within an email or similar file.
- level noun Distance from the root node of a tree structure.
- level-triggered adj Describing a circuit or component whose output is sensitive to changes of the inputs only so long as the clock input's signal is high.
- Levenshtein distance noun The number of edits (replacements, deletions and insertions) required to change one string into another.
- lever noun A rigid piece which is capable of turning about one point, or axis (fulcrum), and in which are two or more other points where forces are…
- lex verb To perform lexical analysis; to convert a character stream to a token stream as a preliminary to parsing.
- lexeme noun An individual instance of a continuous character sequence without spaces, used in lexical analysis.
- lexical adj Relating to alphabetical order or a generalization thereof.
- lexical analysis noun The conversion of a stream of characters to a stream of meaningful tokens; normally to simplify parsing.
- lexical resource noun A linguistic asset comprising information about the words and their meanings within one or more languages.
- lexical simplification noun A subtask of text simplification that swaps words or phrases in a text to make it simpler and easier to understand, reducing its complexity.
- lexical substitution noun The task of replacing a word with another word while maintaining the meaning and context of the original sentence or phrase.
- lexically scoped adj Of an identifier: having its scope limited to the block of source code text that respectively declares or defines the identifier.
- lexicographic adj Relating to alphabetical order or a generalization thereof.
- lexicographical adj Relating to alphabetical order or a generalization thereof.
- lexicon noun The lexicology of a programming language. (Usually called lexical structure.)
- Li-ion noun Abbreviation of lithium ion battery.
- Liang–Barsky algorithm noun A line clipping algorithm that uses the parametric equation of a line and inequalities describing the range of the clipping window to…
- library noun A collection of software routines that provide functionality to be incorporated into or used by a computer program.
- libre adj With very few limitations on distribution or the right to access the source code to create improved versions, but not necessarily free of…
- life verb To replace components whose operational lifetime has expired.
- Life-like cellular automaton noun A cellular automaton resembling Conway's Game of Life in terms of its ruleset (i.e. 2D, binary, outer totalistic, and using the Moore…
- lifeline noun A system or structure of vital importance to a community.
- lifelog verb To capture and record images of one's entire life.
- lift verb Given morphisms f and g with the same target: To produce a morphism which the given morphism factors through (i.e. a morphism h such that…
- lift and shift noun The practice of deploying existing on-premises software to the cloud, with minimal changes to its architecture.
- lift-to-drag ratio noun The instantaneous ratio of lift to drag of an aerodynamic article such as an a wing, entire aircraft or bird.
- lifter noun A filter that operates on a cepstrum.
- liftoff noun The point in the launch of a rocket or an aircraft where it leaves contact with the ground.
- light carrier noun A category of aircraft carrier smaller in size and with a lower aircraft complement than a navy's standard carriers.
- light clay noun Straw-clay, a mixture of straw with a dressing of dilute liquid clay or clay slip. This natural material, making use of an agricultural…
- light probe noun A designated location, within the empty space of a scene, where light is measured for use in later rendering.
- light profile noun Data that describes the manner in which a light source behaves, and the type of shadows that are cast.
- lighter screw noun A screw for adjusting the distance between the stones in a grinding mill by raising or lowering the bridgetree.
- lightning carrier noun A small light fast aircraft carrier specialized in operating VTOL aircraft, used for controlling sea lanes, convoy escort, and…
- lightweight adj Having a small footprint or performance impact.
- lilo adj last in last out (see FIFO)
- limbo noun A type of antisubmarine mortar installed on naval vessels.
- limit noun The cone of a diagram through which any other cone of that same diagram can factor uniquely.
- limited-slip differential noun A type of differential that allows its output shafts to rotate at different speeds but can limit the maximum difference in angular velocity…
- limiter noun A circuit that allows signals below a specified input threshold to pass unaffected while attenuating the peaks of stronger signals.
- limp-wrist verb To hold a handgun with an insufficiently-firm-and-stiff grip while firing, allowing recoil to move the frame of the gun too far rearward…
- Lincoln noun A high-altitude, long-range bomber based on the Avro Lancaster.
- line noun Proper relative position or adjustment (of parts, not as to design or proportion, but with reference to smooth working).
- line abreast adj Arranged or proceeding side-by-side.
- line break noun A character indicating that subsequent characters should appear on a separate line of text.