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 6 of 91: from “auxiliary power unit” to “bar”.
- auxiliary power unit noun A generator in aircraft or other vehicles for providing electric power to various systems, such as lighting, especially when the main…
- available seat-mile noun A measure of an airline flight's passenger carrying capacity, equal to the number of seats onboard an aircraft multiplied by the distance…
- avalanche effect noun A property of some cipher systems in which a small change in the input results in a very large change in the output.
- average seek time noun Of a hard drive, the average of all possible seek times equivalent to the time of all possible seeks divided by the number of all possible…
- avian ingestion noun Collision between a bird and an aircraft in motion, especially a jet airplane, in which the bird enters a running engine.
- avionics noun The science and technology of the development and use of electrical and electronic devices in aviation.
- AVL tree noun A self-balancing binary search tree, where, for each node, the heights of the two child subtrees differ only by at most one.
- AWACS noun Acronym of Airborne Warning and Control System.
- awaitable adj Able to be executed in an asynchronous manner, with the caller receiving any result at a later stage.
- awaiter noun An object that waits for the completion of an asynchronous task.
- away message noun An automated notification sent in response to incoming communications when the recipient is unavailable.
- axial lead noun An electrical component with two leads (wires) extending out in opposite directions (along a single axis).
- axial point noun nodal point
- b symbol bit
- B+ tree noun An m-ary tree data structure with a variable but often large number of children per node. It can be viewed as a B-tree in which each node…
- B-frame noun A compressed video frame which is reconstructed based on its differences from both the previous and the subsequent frame.
- B-tree noun An indexed data structure suitable for storage of a large number of items in a balanced fashion, with very few disk accesses required for…
- Baby Bell noun Any of the Regional Bell Operating Companies resulting from the division of AT&T Corporation into a number of smaller companies in the…
- baby duck syndrome noun The tendency of computer users to think the system (software or usage paradigm) they originally started using is better than others.
- Babyflot noun Any of the airlines in the former Soviet Union created from the dissolution of the Soviet airline monopoly Aeroflot in the early 1990s.
- back beam noun Synonym of back course.
- back buffer noun A buffer used to store graphics while they are being drawn, and later copied to the display in a single operation.
- back channel noun A real-time online discussion that occurs simultaneously with a verbal presentation.
- back course noun The approach course formed by the rear lobe of the signal pattern of a localizer antenna array (the portion of the localizer signal emitted…
- back end adj Relating to the back end part of a hardware or software system.
- back out verb To undo (a change).
- back pointer noun A pointer that reciprocates another structure's pointer to its own containing structure, typically found in doubly linked lists and trees.
- back up verb To copy (data) so that it can be restored if the main copy is lost.
- back-counterbore verb To counterbore from the backside of a workpiece by using a boring tool that passes through a through hole, deploys a cutting edge (or…
- back-countersink verb To countersink from the backside of a workpiece by using a tool that passes through a through hole, deploys a cutting edge (or receives it…
- back-spotface verb To spotface from the backside of a workpiece by using a tool that passes through a through hole, deploys a cutting edge (or receives it by…
- backbore verb To modify (a weapon's barrel) so as to increase the bore diameter.
- backchain verb To perform inferences, starting with a list of goals (or a hypothesis) and working backwards from the consequent to the antecedent.
- backface noun The back side of a face of a mesh, which typically will never face the camera and can thus be culled (discarded) from the list of items to…
- backgate noun A gate that supplies a negative voltage.
- background noun The image or color over which a computer's desktop items are shown (e.g. icons or application windows).
- background processing noun The execution of a subsidiary operation by a computer while the user works with another application.
- backgrounded adj (of a task) Made non-interactive
- backhaul noun Travel to a destination via a further point, or a higher fare point, than the destination (higher intermediate point).
- backing bean noun A bean managed by JavaServer Faces that acts as a server-side data model and controller for a specific UI view (page).
- backjumping noun A form of backtracking that may move more than one level at a time, used to improve the efficiency of certain algorithms.
- backlash noun The looseness through which one part of connected machinery, such as a wheel, gear, piston, or screw, can be moved without moving the…
- backlink noun A reference to an object on another server, allowing it to be updated periodically.
- backoff noun The situation where an algorithm or process refrains from taking an action it would otherwise have taken.
- backout noun A reversed countdown (i.e. ascending numbers) in response to problems leading up to a launch.
- backpatch verb To update (partially compiled code) with jump addresses that were previously left as placeholders because they had not yet been encountered…
- backplane noun A circuit board that connects several connectors in parallel to each other, so that each pin of each connector is linked to the same…
- backport verb To retroactively supply to a previous version of a software product a fix or a new feature at the same time or after supplying it to the…
- backpressure noun The buildup of unprocessed data due to a bottleneck; a technique to control the flow of data between producers and consumers.
- backprime noun The ⟨‵⟩ or ⟨`⟩ symbol; a reversed prime.
- backquote noun The symbol `, resembling a reversed quotation mark.
- backscatter noun The sending of IP packets to essentially random addresses in response to incoming packets that have a spoofed origin.
- backshell noun Part of an electrical conductor or other electrical device, such as a cable clamp or adapter, that is threaded onto the rear connector…
- backslash verb To escape (a metacharacter) by prepending a backslash that serves as an escape character, thereby forming an escape sequence.
- backspace verb To remove a character behind a cursor.
- backstore noun A back end data storage; a backing store device.
- backstrap noun The rearmost surface applied to the grip especially of a pistol below a possible beavertail.
- backtab noun A software-defined key combination to do the reverse of pressing the Tab key, usually Shift+Tab.
- backtaxi noun Synonym of backtrack.
- backtick noun The symbol `, resembling a reversed quotation mark and also being, or being homoglyphic to (depending on mental model), a grave accent mark…
- backtrace noun A stack trace.
- backtrack verb To taxi down an active runway in the opposite direction to that being used for takeoff.
- backtracking noun The usage of a runway as a taxiway, especially at private strips and smaller airports.
- backup noun A copy of a file or record, stored separately from the original, that can be used to recover the original if it is damaged or destroyed.
- backup copy noun A duplicate instance of an application, datafile, server or system created as a means to restore the original data in case it is deleted…
- backward compatibility noun The capability of an electronic device, a piece of software, etc., to interoperate with older systems; (countable) an instance of this.
- backward induction noun The process of reasoning backwards in time, from the end of a problem or situation, to determine a sequence of optimal actions.
- backwrap noun A word wrap feature that restores a word to the preceding line when space is made for it by deletion.
- badge noun A small overlay on an icon that shows additional information about that item, such as the number of new alerts or messages.
- baffle noun A device used to dampen, muffle, restrain, or otherwise control the movement of a fluid, or waves travelling through a fluid such as light…
- bag of words noun The collection of words from an unprocessed text without regard to grammar; a collection of word unigrams.
- baggage check noun the part of a boarding pass, or a separate stub, that identifies the passenger's baggage and permits it to be collected at the destination.
- bainite noun A microstructure of steel consisting of needle-like particles of cementite embedded in a ferrite matrix.
- baitware noun Freeware of deliberately poor quality with some, but generally not all, of the features of a software application, intended to entice those…
- bake verb To fix (lighting, reflections, etc.) as part of the texture of an object to improve rendering performance.
- baksmal verb Converting a Dalvik executable file (.dex file) to smali language (a human-readable representation of the binary Dalvik bytecode)
- ball verb To heat in a furnace and form into balls for rolling.
- ball bearing noun A bearing assembly which uses spherical bearing balls as the rolling elements, usually consisting of two ballraces (rings).
- ballast noun device used for stabilizing current in an electric circuit (e.g. in a tube lamp supply circuit)
- balloon verb Of an aircraft: to plunge alternately up and down.
- balloon carrier noun A ship used to support carry a balloon or dirigible, and support its operation; particularly observation balloon operations
- balloon tender noun A ship used to support operations of a balloon or dirigible, particularly observation balloon operations
- ballrace noun A ring with a groove in which rolling elements (such as balls) ride, forming part of a rolling-element bearing (for example, a ball…
- bambooing noun A ridged surface texture, like that of bamboo, caused by manufacturing problems.
- banana noun A catamorphism (from the use of banana brackets in the notation).
- banana clip noun A curved ammunition clip for the AK-47 assault rifle.
- band noun A designated range of radio frequencies used for wireless communication.
- band printer noun A type of impact line printer in which a metal band, etched with character shapes and timing marks, moves horizontally across the print…
- bandbrake noun A braking device consisting of a flexible band that tightens around a rotating drum to slow or stop motion by friction.
- bandelet noun An orthonormal basis that is adapted to geometric boundaries, used in image processing.
- bandit noun An aircraft identified as an enemy, but distinct from "hostile" or "threat" in that it is not immediately to be engaged.
- bandreject adj (of a filter, circuit, or system) Rejecting or attenuating a specific range of frequencies while passing those above and below.
- bandwidth noun The rate of data flow in digital networks typically measured in bits per second; the bitrate.
- bang out verb To eject.
- bang path noun An early form of e-mail address with the components separated by exclamation marks, naming the sequence of networked computers that the…
- bank verb To roll or incline laterally in order to turn.
- bank switching noun A method to increase the usable memory beyond what the processor normally supports by switching between different areas of memory ("banks")…
- banking noun A horizontal turn.
- banksman noun The person who directs the operation of a crane or larger vehicle from the point near where loads are attached and detached.
- bar noun A solid metal object with uniform (round, square, hexagonal, octagonal or rectangular) cross-section; in the US its smallest dimension is…