ExpertGlossary terms starting with P

3,647 terms

Participating Insurance Insurance on which the policyholder is entitled to share in the surplus earnings of the company through policy dividends that reflect the difference…
Participating policy When policyholders have what is called a participating policy from a mutual insurance company, they are eligible to receive dividends based on the…
Participating Service A military Service that supports the lead Service in the development of a joint acquisition program by its contribution of personnel and/or funds.
Participation Lender involvement in a development for a percentage of the gross sales or profit, as well as interest on the loan.
Participation fee See annual fee.
Particle acceleration The time rate of change of particle velocity.
Particle Accelerators A machine used to accelerate particles to high speeds, and thus, high energy compared to their rest-mass energy.
Particle Beam (PB) High-energy beam made up of atomic/sub-atomic particles (electrons, protons, or neutrons) accelerated to near the speed of light.
Particle Beam Weapon (PBW) A weapon that relies on the technology of particle accelerators (atom-smashers) to emit beams of charged or neutral particles, which travel near the speed…
Particle displacement The difference between the initial position of a soil particle and any later temporary position during shaking.
particle number concentration The number of particles present in any given volume of air.
Particle Physics The study of fundamental particles (such as quarks and leptons) and the fundamental interactions (four forces).
particle radiation High energy nuclear emissions, used as physical agents of mutagenesis. Three major types typically used: alpha (☐) (positively charged), beta (☐)…
Particle size Diameter of the various particles comprising a particular soil.
particle size distribution The number of particles present in any given volume of air within a specified size range.
Particle Trajectory Model A computer sub-model that tracks the trajectories of multiple particles that are released into an atmospheric flow model.
Particle velocity The time rate of change of particle displacement.
Particulate A small, discrete mass of solid or liquid matter that remains individually dispersed in gas or liquid emissions.
Particulate emissions Fine liquid or solid particles discharged with exhaust gases. Usually measured as grains per cubic foot or pounds per million Btu input.
Particulate matter Fine solid or liquid particles such as dust, smoke, mist, fumes, or smog, found in air or emissions.
Particulate Matter (PM) Very small pieces of solid or liquid matter such as particles of soot, dust, fumes, mists or aerosols.
Particulates The fine liquid or solid particles contained in combustion gases. The quantity and size of particulates emitted by cars, power and industrial plants, wood…
parties Plaintiffs and defendants (petitioners and respondents) to lawsuits, also known as appellants and appellees in appeals, and their lawyers.
Parting strip The small member, usually wood and usually removable, that separates the upper and lower sash pockets in the jamb of a double-hung window
Partition A partition is an individual section of computer storage media such as a hard drive.
Partition Gap One physical hard disk drive can be partitioned to contain one or more logical drives when computer users utilize programs such as FDisk or Partition…
Partition Table The partition table indicates each logical volume contained on a disc and its location.
Partition Waste Space After the boot sector of each volume or partition is written to a track, it is customary for the system to skip the rest of that track and begin the…
partitioned A characteristic of virtualization which refers to the independent nature of the virtual machines allowing them to run different operating systems on the…
partitioned security mode [An] information-system (IS) security mode of operation wherein all personnel have the clearance, but not necessarily formal access approval and…
partitioning A software technology able to create multiple instances of the same host OS, called partitions, instead of reproducing multiple different physical…
Partly Cloudy Between 3/8 and 5/8 of the sky is covered by clouds.
Partly Sunny Between 3/8 and 5/8 of the sky is covered by clouds. The term "Partly Sunny" is used only during daylight hours.
partner A member of a clustered pair. From the point of view of the local filer, the other filer in the cluster is the partner. See also "takeover partner."
partner mode The method used to communicate through the command-line interface with the failed filer in a cluster during a takeover.
Partnership An agreement between two or more entities to go into business or invest. See also "general partnership;" "limited partnership;" "joint venture."
Parts per billion (ppb) A measurement of concentration on a weight or volume basis. Equivalent to micrograms per liter.
parts per million (Abbreviation: ppm). Unit of concentration: 1ppm = 1mg dissolved matter per litre of solution.
Parts per million (ppm) A measurement of concentration on a weight or volume basis. Equivalent to milligrams per liter (mg/l).
parturition The process of giving birth.
Party A person, business, or government agency actively involved in the prosecution or defense of a legal proceeding.
party ID 1. The served user's (or controller's) reference to a particular party within the context of a call.
party in interest A party who has standing to be heard by the court in a matter to be decided in the bankruptcy case. The debtor, the U.S.
party line In telephone systems, an arrangement in which two or more user end instruments, usually telephones, are connected to the same loop.
PAS Employee A PAS Employee is one who holds a senior non-career position that requires nomination by the President and confirmation by the Senate.
PASAT Patent Application Specification Authoring Tool -- no longer used as of 22 August 2004
Pascal The unit of pressure produced when one newton acts on one square meter (1 N/m2). It is abbreviated Pa.
Pascal (Pa) The pressure or stress of one newton per square meter. 1 psi = 6895 Pa.
PASS A working trip or passage of an excavating, grading, or compaction machine. See compaction.
Pass-through security When a corporation or government agency buys loans from lenders to pool and package as securities for resale to investors, the products may be…
Passage The transfer or transplantation of cells from one culture medium to another.
passage number The number of times cells in culture have been sub-cultured.
passage time Time interval between successive sub-cultures.
passband The portion of spectrum, between limiting frequencies (or, in the optical regime, limiting wavelengths), that is transmitted with minimum relative loss or…
Passbook A book in ledger form in which are recorded all deposits, withdrawals, and earnings of a customer's savings account.
Passe French term for High Bet.
Passenger Vessels Are defined as vessels used primarily for the transportation of persons; commercial vessels transporting property in addition to transporting passengers…
Passenger-Miles per Gallon Pmpg is the vehicle miles per gallon multiplied by the number of passengers traveling in the vehicle.
Passerine Birds of the order Passeriformes, which includes perching birds and songbirds such as the jays, blackbirds, finches, warblers, and sparrows.
Passivation A chemical reaction that eliminates the detrimental effect of electrically reactive atoms on a photovoltaic cell's surface.
Passive In surveillance, an adjective applied to actions or equipment, which emit no energy capable of being detected. 219
Passive Air Defense All measures, other than active air defense, taken to minimize the effectiveness of hostile air action.
passive antibody therapy (...AN-tee-BAH-dee THAYR-uh-pee) Treatment with injections of antibodies made in another animal or in the laboratory.
Passive Attack An attack against an authentication protocol where the attacker intercepts data traveling along the network between the claimant and verifier, but does…
passive client A Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) browser, which is capable of broadly supported HTTP, that can use cookies.
Passive Communications Security Threats Threats to electronic systems posed by a capability to obtain intelligence through intercepting and evaluating intentional and inadvertent electromagnetic…
Passive Defense (1) Measures taken to reduce the probability of and to minimize the effects of damage caused by hostile action without the intention of taking the…
passive device A device that does not require a source of energy for its operation. Note: Examples of passive devices are electrical resistors, electrical capacitors…
Passive earth pressure The maximum value of earth pressure. This condition exists when a soil mass is compressed sufficiently to cause its internal shearing resistance along a…
passive element Synonym parasitic element.
passive immunity 1. Natural acquisition of antibodies by the foetus or neonate (newborn) from the mother. 2.
Passive income You collect passive income from certain businesses in which you aren't an active participant.
Passive losses You have passive losses from businesses in which you aren't an active participant.
passive satellite In a satellite communications system, a satellite that only reflects signals from one Earth station to another, or from several Earth stations to several…
Passive Sensor A sensor that detects naturally occurring emissions from a target for tracking and/or identification purposes.
Passive Solar (Building) Design A building design that uses structural elements of a building to heat and cool a building, without the use of mechanical equipment, which requires careful…
Passive solar energy system Solar heating or cooling that uses natural energy flows to transfer heat.
Passive Solar Heater A solar water or space-heating system in which solar energy is collected, and/or moved by natural convection without using pumps or fans.
Passive Solar Home A house built using passive solar design techniques.
passive star See star coupler.
passive station On a multipoint connection or a point-to-point connection using basic mode link control, any tributary station waiting to be polled or selected.
passive threat 1. Of a data or information processing system, a threat of disclosure of information without changing the state of the system.
Passive/Natural Cooling To allow or augment the natural movement of cooler air from exterior, shaded areas of a building through or around a building.
Passively managed An index mutual fund or exchange traded fund is described as passively managed because the securities in its portfolio change only when the make-up of the…
passphrase [A] sequence of characters, longer than the acceptable length of a password, that is transformed by a password system into a virtual password of…
passthru server An intermediary server that lets a client access a target server to which the client is not connected.
Password A secret code utilized, usually along with a user ID, in order to log on or gain access to a PC, network or other secure system, site or application.
password history With respect to a given information system (IS) asset, a log of expired passwords, used primarily for automatic comparison with proposed new passwords.
password length equation An equation that determines an appropriate password length, M, which provides an acceptable probability, P, that a password will be guessed in its…
password length parameter A basic parameter affecting the password length needed to provide a given degree of security.
Password Protected The ability to protect a file using a password access control, protecting the data contents from being viewed with the appropriate viewer unless the…
Password Replication Policy A set of access control lists (ACLs) that determine what credentials can or cannot be replicated on a read-only domain controller (RODC).
Password Settings Container An object class in the Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS) schema that is created by default under the System container in the domain.
Password Settings object An Active Directory object that is stored in the Password Settings Container. The Password Settings object holds the attributes of a certain fine-grained…
Past Due Item Any note or other time instrument of indebtedness that has not been paid on the due date.
Past post A method of cheating where a player posts additional money to his wager after seeing the results of the hand.
Past Posting Placing a winning wager after a decision has been reached. Usually done by capping a bet.
Past weather Past weather Predominant characteristic of the weather which had existed at an observing station during a given period of time (during the preceding hour…
pastoral counselor (PAS-tuh-rul KOWN-suh-ler) A person who is trained to give spiritual and mental health advice.
PAT In blackjack, an unbusted hand worth at least 17 points. In draw poker, a hand that does not need any more hands.