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 54 of 91: from “nose cap” to “on silent”.
- nose cap noun The protective covering on the end of an aircraft fuselage.
- nose cone noun The forwardmost part of an aircraft, rocket or missile; it is shaped to minimize aerodynamic resistance.
- nose over verb To crash by landing such that the nose of the plane hits the ground first, causing the plane to topple forward.
- nosedive noun A drop in altitude with the nose of the craft angled downwards.
- Nosler noun A bullet having two lead-filled partitions separated by a copper or brass section, intended to retain hitting power after the initial…
- not invented here adj Invented outside one's own organization (referring to the knee-jerk dismissal of products, technologies, etc. that come from third parties).
- notch noun A portion of a mobile phone that overlaps the edge of the screen, used to house a camera, sensors etc. while maximizing screen space.
- notebook noun A kind of user interface in literate programming, allowing calculations to be interspersed with human-readable comments, diagrams, etc.
- notebook computer noun A class of laptop computer that is around the size of a paper notebook with A4 or letter-sized pages.
- nothing-up-my-sleeve number noun A number which, by its construction, is above suspicion of having hidden properties; used in creating cryptographic functions such as…
- notification noun A message, alert, or signal displayed by a system or application to inform the user of an event, update, new message, etc.
- noun noun An object within a user interface to which a certain action or transformation (i.e., verb) is applied.
- NP-complete adj That is both NP (solvable in polynomial time by a non-deterministic Turing machine) and NP-hard (such that any (other) NP problem can be…
- NP-easy adj Solvable in polynomial time by a deterministic Turing machine with an oracle for some decision problem in NP.
- NP-hard adj A problem H is NP-hard if and only if there is an NP-complete problem L that is polynomial time Turing-reducible to H.
- NPC noun Initialism of non-printing character.
- NPN noun Ellipsis of NPN transistor.
- nroff verb To format (text) using the nroff program, which produces output suitable for simple fixed-width printers and terminal windows.
- NTIME noun In computational complexity theory, the complexity class that is the set of decision problems that can be solved by a nondeterministic…
- nub noun A pointing stick.
- nuclear rocket noun A rocket with a nuclear reactor aboard.
- nuclear-pulse rocket noun a rocket that uses the impulse imparted by the detonation of nuclear bombs as the propulsive force to propel the spacecraft
- nuclear-thermal rocket noun a rocket with a thermal gas exhaust engine, whereby the thermal fluid is heated by the nuclear reactor
- nuclear-thermoelectric rocket noun a rocket with a thermal ion engine, whereby the ions are ionized by electricity from a nuclear reactor, and the fluid that is the source of…
- nugatory adj Removable from a computer program with safety, but harmless if retained.
- nugget noun A partial description gleaned from data mining.
- null noun The null character; the ASCII or Unicode character (␀), represented by a zero value, which indicates no character and is sometimes used as…
- null modem noun A means of directly connecting two pieces of equipment (computer, printer, etc.) using a serial cable.
- null object noun An object that is both an initial and terminal object.
- null-terminated adj Stored in memory followed by a null character, so that its length can be detected without having to be explicitly stored.
- nullable noun A variable, etc. that is allowed to have a null value.
- nullary adj Taking no arguments.
- nullified adj Whose value has been set to null
- nullipotent adj Describing an action which has no side effect. Queries are typically nullipotent: they return useful data, but do not change the data…
- Num Lock noun A key on a standard extended keyboard which, when pressed, toggles the keys of the numeric keypad between cursor control functions and…
- number cruncher noun A program, algorithm, or hardware with a focus on numerical calculation.
- numeric complement noun The number obtained by changing the numeric sign of a number. This may or may not be the twos complement, depending on the way numbers are…
- numeric promotion noun The conversion of a numeric data type into one that can hold more information. For example, the conversion of a long into a double.
- numerical linear algebra noun The study of numerical analysis algorithms to solve mathematical problems in the field of linear algebra.
- nunchaku noun A weapon originating from Okinawa, Japan, consisting of two sticks joined by a chain or cord.
- nursing informatics noun Informatics as applied to nursing: the application of information science and information technology to nursing science and practice.
- nut noun The tumbler of a gunlock.
- nutate verb To wobble; to make a circular rocking motion.
- ob symbol The set of objects of a category.
- Oberth effect noun The concept that the most efficient place for spacecraft to change velocity is at the periapsis (the lowest point of an orbit).
- obfuscate verb To alter code while preserving its behavior but concealing its structure and intent.
- obfuscation noun The alteration of computer code to preserve its behavior while concealing its structure and intent.
- obfuscator noun A software program that modifies another program to make it harder to decompile or reverse-engineer.
- object noun An instance of one of the two kinds of entities that form a category, the other kind being the arrows (also called morphisms).
- object code noun The output of a compiler or assembler; it is not necessarily executable directly without linking to other modules
- object graph noun A view of an object system at a particular point in time that details the relationships between class instances.
- object language noun target language; the language of the object code, the output of a compiler (not necessarily executable machine code)
- object pool pattern noun A creational design pattern that uses a set of initialised objects kept ready to use, rather than allocating and destroying them on demand.
- object request broker noun A piece of middleware in distributed software that enables program calls from one computer to another via a network.
- object-based language noun Any programming language that encapsulates the state and operations inside objects that may or may not support inheritance.
- object-based programming noun A programming paradigm that encapsulates states and operations inside "objects" to design applications and computer programs.
- object-oriented language noun Any programming language that encapsulates the state and operations inside objects that support inheritance.
- object-oriented programming noun A programming paradigm that uses hierarchies of objects, instantiated from templates called classes, to design applications and computer…
- oblique verb To slant (text, etc.) at an angle.
- oblique shock noun A shock wave that, unlike a normal shock, is inclined with respect to the incident upstream flow direction.
- oblique wing noun A variable geometry wing concept, where the wing is designed to rotate on center pivot, so that one tip is swept forward while the opposite…
- oblivious transfer noun A transfer in which a sender sends some information to a receiver but does not know what is received.
- observability noun The ability to collect data about the execution of distributed programs, especially the interaction among its components.
- obturation noun The process of a bullet expanding under pressure to fit the bore of the firearm, or a cartridge case expanding under pressure to seal the…
- obturator noun A valve closure member (disk, gate, plug, etc.).
- OC noun Initialism of overclock.
- occlusion noun The blocking of the view of part of an image by another.
- occupation bridge noun A bridge connecting the parts of an estate or property separated by a road, railway, or canal.
- octal noun The number system that uses the eight digits 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7.
- octave noun Any of a number of coherent-noise functions of differing frequency that are added together to form Perlin noise.
- octet noun A byte of eight bits. Abbreviation: o
- octoid adj Being a form of gear or tooth that resembles the involute, but whose complete path of contact on the surface of a sphere is in the form of…
- odontometer noun An odontograph.
- off time noun The time interval when no current flows.
- off-by-one error noun A logic error where a value, typically the number of iterations of a loop, is specified incorrectly, being either 1 less or 1 more than it…
- offer verb To place (something) in a position where it can be added to an existing mechanical assembly.
- office noun A collection of business software typically including a word processor and spreadsheet and slideshow programs.
- office suite noun A bundle of applications intended to be used together for productivity purposes, such as a word processor, a spreadsheet, a presentation…
- offline verb To take (a system, etc.) offline; to demote from an active or online state.
- offline installer noun A single-executable installer for a program that already contains the full program. It does not need to connect to the Internet.
- offload verb To deny a person on a standby list due to lack of space.
- offset noun The difference between a target memory address and a base address.
- offset time noun In optical burst switching, the amount of time between the burst header and the control packet.
- offside rule noun A system that gives right-of-way at an intersection to traffic approaching from the side on which one is not driving.
- offspring noun A process launched by another process.
- ogive noun The pointed, curved nose of a bullet, missile, or rocket.
- ohmic resistance noun That portion of the apparent resistance or impedance of a circuit which depends only upon the dimensions of the conductors, their…
- oil filter noun A filter designed to remove contaminants from engine oil, transmission oil, lubricating oil, or hydraulic oil.
- oiler noun A small (typically thumb-sized) metal container of oil, often containing an integral brush.
- OK verb To confirm by activating a button marked OK.
- ol noun open line (open circuit, no continuity).
- ole noun Initialism of Object Linking and Embedding.
- oleo noun A type of energy-absorbing landing gear strut in which sudden compression or extension of the strut causes a gas-filled chamber to push or…
- omelette noun A form of shellcode that searches the address space for multiple small blocks of data ("eggs") and recombines them into a larger block to…
- omnibearing noun The bearing of an aircraft, usually relative to magnetic north, determined by omnidirectional radio signals.
- omnidirectional adj Having a ring-shaped radiation pattern, with equal radiation in all azimuthal directions.
- omnirange noun A short-range radio navigation system for aircraft, based on a network of fixed radio beacons on the ground.
- on base prep_phrase Flying the base leg of an approach.
- on guard adj Transmitting on the aircraft emergency frequency.
- on silent adj A setting on an electronic device that prevents it from producing noise when it receives a call or a message, such as an alert or a…