Glossary
Terms starting with C
678 definitions · page 3 of 12.
- CATV
- Community Antenna Television or Cable TV system. Can be all coaxial or HFC (Hybrid Fiber Coax) based.
- Caul fat
- The lacy, fatty membrane encasing the internal organs of an animal. Pork caul is often used for wrapping faggots or pâtés. It comes in thin sheets and you can buy it from traditional butchers.
- CAULKING
- Material used to make an air-tight seal by filling in cracks, such as those around windows and doors.
- Caveat Emptor
- A Latin term meaning "let the buyer beware." A legal maxim stating that the buyer takes the risk regarding quality or condition of the property purchased, unless protected by warranty.
- Caviar
- True caviar is the salted and matured eggs or roe of the female sturgeon. Most caviar comes from the Caspian Sea and is processed in Russia and Iran. Beluga is the most expensive variety, followed by Oscietra and Sevruga, all of which are produced from…
- Cavolo nero
- An Italian cabbage with dark green leaves that have a good, strong flavour. It can be used in all cabbage recipes but it's particularly good in soups - such as the classic Tuscan soup, ribolitta, which is traditionally left to sit for a day before serving to…
- Cayenne pepper
- A red, fiery hot spice ground from the pod and seeds of dried chillies. A pinch of cayenne over devilled kidneys or stirred through gravy for game birds adds a gutsy kick and heightens the flavour of the dish. It's also good used sparingly in vegetable or…
- CCAAT box
- An invariant DNA sequence at about minus 70 base pairs from the origin of transcription in many eukaryotic promoters.
- CCD
- a silicon chip used to detect light; charge-coupled devices (CCDs) are far more efficient at collecting light than conventional film
- CCD (Charge-Coupled Device)
- A computer chip covered with thousands or millions of light-measuring cells that convert light into electrical signals and allow you to capture an image.
- CCIT
- Comite Consultatif International Telegraphique et Telephonique (International Telegraph and Telephone Consultative Committee). International telecommunication standards body.
- CCR
- California Code of Regulations.
- CD Synchro Recording
- Allows a cassette deck and a CD player to communicate. One button synchronizes the start of a recording on an analog or digital compact cassette deck with the start of a CD or a CD program.
- CD-ROM
- Compact disc-read only memory. A compact-disc technology that enables a personal computer to access digitally text, still images, moving pictures, and sound.
- CD-ROM
- (Compact Disc Read-Only Memory) An optical storage medium that can hold about 600 MB of data and is accessed with lasers.
- cDNA library
- A pool of complementary DNA clones produced by cDNA cloning of total messenger RNA from a single source (cell type, tissue, embryo).
- Celeriac
- A large, knobbly root vegetable, the base of the stem of certain types of celery. It tastes quite similar to celery, although it also has a slightly nutty flavour. It's in season from mid-September to the end of April. To prepare it, peel like a potato…
- Celery seeds
- Dried seeds of celery, with a bitter taste. They're used in bread making and in egg and fish dishes. Celery seeds are ground with salt to make celery salt, used for making Bloody Marys.
- celesta
- A small keyboard instrument invented in 1886 whose hammers strike a series of resonating steel plates to produce a bell-like but veiled sound. Used by composers from Tchaikovsky to Boulez.
- celestial pole
- the imaginary projection of Earth’s rotational axis onto the celestial sphere
- celestial sphere
- the apparent sphere of the sky; an imaginary sphere of immense radius centered on Earth often used to plot the coordinates of objects in the sky
- cell
- In certain twentieth-century compositions,a brief, recurring musical figure that does not undergo traditional motivic development.
- cell autonomous
- A genetic trait in multicellular organisms in which only genotypically mutant cells exhibit the mutant phenotype. Conversely, a nonautonomous trait is one in which genotypically mutant cells cause other cells (regardless of their genotype) to exhibit a…
- cell cycle
- The cycle of cell growth, replication of the genetic material and nuclear and cytoplasmic division.
- cell division
- The process by which two cells are formed from one. See meiosis and mitosis
- cell fate
- The ultimate differentiated state to which a cell has become committed.
- cell lineage
- A pedigree of cells related through asexual division.
- CELL PHONE INSURANCE
- Separate insurance provided to cover cell phones for damage or theft. Policies are often sold with the cell phones themselves.
- cell-free system
- A mixture of cytoplasmic and/or nuclear components from cells and used for in vitro protein synthesis or transcription or DNA replication or other purposes.
- cellular blastoderm
- The stage of the blastoderm, initially a syncytium, in insects after the nuclei have each been separately packaged into a cell membrane.
- Cellulite
- Deposits of fat and other material trapped in pockets beneath the skin.
- CELSIUS
- A temperature scale based on the freezing (0 degrees) and boiling (100 degrees) points of water. Abbreviated as C in second and subsequent references in text. Formerly known as Centigrade. To convert Celsius to Fahrenheit, multiply the number by 9, divide by…
- centimorgan (cm)
- A chromosome mapping unit. One centimorgan equals 1% recombinant offspring.
- central dogma
- The original postulate that genetic information can be transferred only from nucleic acid to nucleic acid and from nucleic acid to protein, that is from DNA to DNA from DNA to RNA and from RNA to protein (although information transfer from RNA to DNA was not…
- CENTRAL OFFICE
- A location where there is an assembly of equipment that establishes the connections between subscriber lines, trunks, switched access circuits, private line facilities, and special access facilities with the rest of the telephone network.
- CENTRAL OFFICE CODE
- The first three digits (NXX) of the seven-digit telephone number assigned to a customer's telephone exchange service.
- Centre Channel
- With centre channel, the front centre speaker in a Dolby® Pro-Logic® and Dolby® Digital surround system has four centre channel modes. Choose Normal when you have a small centre speaker; Phantom, for no centre speaker; Wide when you have a full-sized centre…
- Centre Speaker
- A key component of a Dolby® Pro-Logic® and Dolby® Digital equipped home theatre system. This speaker handles a vast majority of a program's dialogue, and typically sits on top of or directly below the TV cabinet.
- centric fragment
- A piece of chromosome containing a centromere.
- centriole
- A short cylindrical organelle, found in pairs arranged at right angles to each other at the centre of a microtubule organizing centre (MTOC) or centrosome, found in eukaryotes (except in higher plants). A centriole is similar in structure to the basal body…
- centromere
- A kinetochore; the constricted region of a nuclear chromosome, to which the spindle fibres attach during division.
- centromere marker
- locus located close to a centromere.
- centromeric fission
- Creation of two chromosomes from one by splitting the centromere.
- centrosome
- The primary microtubule organising center (MTOC) of animal cells, that divides prior to cell division each daughter MTOC acts as one pole of the spindle apparatus. The centrosome usually contains a pair of centrioles.
- Cep (also cèpe)
- The word cep is a Gascon term for the Boletus edulis mushroom (called 'porcino' in Italian). The same mushroom is called the 'penny bun' in English. This mushroom is generally agreed by connoisseurs to be among the finest eating mushrooms. Ceps make great…
- Cepheid variable
- a class of luminous stars that vary in brightness; used to calibrate distances to galaxies
- Ceramides
- A natural substance within the skin that reduces natural water loss of the skin by forming a protective barrier. Can also be produced synthetically and added to skin care products.
- CERN
- CERN (European Laboratory for Particle Physics) is the major European international accelerator laboratory located near Geneva, Switzerland.
- CERN
- (Conseil Europeen pour la Recherche Nucleaire) A nuclear research laboratory where the World Wide Web was invented.
- Certificate
- Digital ID used for SSL transactions. It includes owner's public key, the name of the owner, the issuer, hostname, and the expiration date.
- Certificate Authority
- A company trusted by a browser maker that issues digital certificates that are supposed to guarantee that the company is what it claims to be for use in encrypted digital transactions though SSL. Verisign is the biggest certificate authority.
- Certificate of Citizenship
- A document issued by the Department of Homeland Security as proof that the person is a U.S. citizen by birth (when born abroad) or derivation (not from naturalization). The Child Citizenship Act of 2001 gives American citizenship automatically to certain…
- Certificate of Naturalization
- A document issued by the Department of Homeland Security as proof that the person has become a U.S. citizen (naturalized) after immigration to the United States.
- CERTIFICATE OF SALE
- The document generally given to the purchaser at a tax foreclosure sale. A certificate of sale does not convey title; normally it is an instrument certifying that the holder received title to the property after the redemption period passed and that the…
- CERTIFICATE OF TITLE
- A statement of opinion on the status of the title to a parcel of real property based on an examination of specified public records.
- CERTIFICATION
- process by which a motor vehicle, motor vehicle engine, or motor vehicle pollution control device satisfies the criteria adopted by the California Air Resources Board (ARB) for the control of specified air contaminants from vehicular sources (Health & Safety…
- Certified Auctioneers Education Institute Inc.
- Now known as the Auction Marketing Institute, Inc. See Auction Marketing Institute, Inc.
- Ceviche
- A South American dish of raw white fish, marinated and effectively 'cooked' in lemon or lime juice - the acid in the juices breaks down the fish and after a few hours it will eventually become opaque like ordinary cooked fish. It's typically served with…
- CFCs
- short for "chlorofluorocarbons," a family of industrial gases. CFCs interfere with the natural cycle of ozone formation in the upper atmosphere, which acts as a barrier to harmful ultraviolet radiation.
- CFCs (CHLOROFLUOROCARBONS or CHLORINATED FLUOROCARBONS)
- A family of artificially produced chemicals receiving much attention for their role in stratospheric ozone depletion. On a per molecule basis, these chemicals are several thousand times more effective as greenhouse gases than carbon dioxide. Since they were…