Association of British Scrabble Players

Science & Tech > Computing > Hardware


Now updated for CSW19. New words, if any, and new inflections of existing words, are shown in red.


backplane the circuit board on a computer to which other circuit boards and components can be connected.
baud a unit of data transmission speed of one bit per second.
binit a unit of computer information.
biochip a computer logic circuit whose components are formed from biological molecules or structures.
bitrate the speed of data processing.
brontobyte a very large unit of computer memory.
byte a set of usually eight binary digits (bits) considered as a unit.
cardpunch a machine which perforates cards to record data.
chad a bit of paper punched out of paper tape or cards.
chipset a group of chips performing certain functions.
computability the quality of being computable.
computer a machine that computes automatically.
computerless without a computer.
computerlike like a computer.
computist a computer.
coprocessing the act of processing by means of a coprocessor.
coprocessor a microprocessor supplementing the functions of a main processor.
crackberry a BlackBerry handheld computer, particularly one used obsessively; a person who uses such a computer obsessively.
cyber involving computers.
daisywheel a kind of printer.
datacard a smart card.
dataglove an electrically wired glove-like device that transmits the wearer's movements to a virtual reality monitor.
daughterboard a small circuit board that can be attached to the motherboard of a computer.
desknote a small computer.
desktop a computer system small enough to use at a desk.
diskette a small flexible plastic disk with a magnetic coating used as an inexpensive data-storage device of moderate capacity.
dongle a security device on computers.
eniac an American pioneering electronic computer.
exabyte a very large unit of computer memory.
fablet a large smartphone that is able to perform many of the functions of a tablet computer.
floppy given to flopping (noun) a floppy disk
floptical a type of read-write head using a laser device.
gigabit a thousand million bits.
gigabyte a thousand million bytes.
gigacycle one billion hertz.
gigaflop a unit of processing speed.
gigahertz one billion hertz.
handheld something, eg a computer, held in the hand and operated from there.
hardboot a type of computer startup.
hardware metal goods.
hardwire to program by hardware.
inkjet a printer that spurts ink to form letters.
joypad a device consisting of a pad with buttons on it, used for controlling the motion of objects in a computer game.
joystick a lever by means of which the movement of a cursor on a screen may be controlled.
keyboard the manually operated range of keys or levers in a musical instrument, computer, etc; (verb) to enter data on a keyboard.
keycard a coded card for operating a device.
keypad a small device with push-button controls, eg a TV remote control unit.
keypunch to transfer data on to punched cards.
keypuncher one who keypunches.
keyring a type of computer drive.
kibibyte two to the power of ten bytes.
lapheld held in the lap.
laptop a computer that can be used on the lap.
laserdisc a disc similar to a long-playing record on which data is stored by the use of a laser.
laserdisk a disc similar to a long-playing record on which data is stored by the use of a laser.
luggable portable, but with some difficulty; (noun) a luggable computer.
mainframe a large computer serving others.
mebibyte two to the power of twenty bytes.
megabit one million bits.
megabyte one million bytes.
megacycle a million cycles; a million cycles per second.
megaflop a processing speed of one million operations per second.
megapixel one million pixels.
metacomputer a collection of computers that looks and functions like a single computer.
metacomputing computing that uses metacomputers.
micro a microcomputer.
microchip a chip of silicon; (verb) to fit with a microchip.
microcircuit a compact electronic circuit.
microcircuitry circuitry composed of microcircuits.
microcomponent a very small component.
microcomputer a small computer usually equipped with a microprocessor.
microcomputing computing with a microcomputer.
microdrive a very small hard disk drive.
microfloppy a small floppy disk.
microprocessing the processing of data by a microprocessor.
microprocessor a computer processor contained on an integrated-circuit chip.
microreader a device that produces an enlarged image of a microphotograph or microfilm.
microworld a discrete area within a computer database.
microwriter a handheld five- or six-key device by means of which text can be generated on a printer or vdu.
minicomputer a small computer that is intermediate between a microcomputer and a mainframe.
minidisc a small recordable compact disk.
minidisk a small disk for a microcomputer.
minifloppy a small floppy disk.
minitower a computer in a small vertical cabinet.
mips a million instruction per second.
modem an electronic device which converts digital data from a computer into analogue signals that can be sent to another computer over a telephone system; (verb) to transmit or receive by modem.
motherboard part of a computer.
multicore of an electrical cable having more than two cores.
multiplexer a device enabling a computer to transmit data to many terminals by switching quickly from one user's data to another.
multiplexor a device enabling a computer to transmit data to many terminals by switching quickly from one user's data to another.
nanodot a microscopic cluster of several hundred nickel dots used to store large amounts of data in a computer chip.
netbook a portable computer smaller than a laptop.
neurochip a microchip used in neural networks.
neurocomputer a computer that uses neural networks to mimic the action of the human brain.
neurocomputing computing using neural networks to mimic the action of the human brain.
nybble in computing, half a byte.
overclock to run a computer component at a higher clock rate than it was designed for or was specified by the manufacturer.
overclocker one who overclocks.
palmtop a small handheld computer.
petabyte in computing, 10 to the fifteenth bytes.
petaflop a unit of processing speed equal to 2 to the power of 50 floating-point operations per second.
phablet a handheld personal computer between a smartphone and a tablet in size and which combines features of both.
photodisk a disk for use in a computer that contains photographs or can have photographs stored on it in a digitally coded manner.
policer a computer device controlling use.
printwheel another name for daisywheel, a kind of printer.
processor something that processes.
qubit in computing, a quantum bit.
qubyte in computing, a quantum byte.
rootserver a computer that acts as the main server for a whole service.
soundcard the card in a computer that produces audio.
supercomputing computing using a supercomputer, a large very fast mainframe used esp for scientific computations.
supermicro a very small micro computer.
superscalar of a processor, able to perform more than one instruction simultaneously.
swapfile a computer file with space for transferred programs.
tebibyte two to the power of forty bytes.
terabyte a large unit of computer memory.
touchpad part of a laptop computer functioning like a mouse.
touchscreen a computer screen operated by touch.
trackball a spherical ball mounted in a box structure that can be used to control a computer cursor.
trackerball a spherical ball that can be rotated with the palm of the hand causing the cursor to move around the screen.
trackpad part of a laptop computer functioning like a mouse.
transputer a special computer chip able to process in parallel rather than sequentially.
vidscreen a video screen.
viewport a framed area on a computer display for viewing information.
yottabyte a very large unit of computer memory.
zettabyte a unit of computer memory, 10 to the 21 bytes.