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mass media               acronym

  TABOR : Taxpayer's Bill of Rights

Internet lingo

  TAFN : that's all for now

acronym

TAI : International Atomic Time (In French: Temps Atomic International) : an international time scale with a continuous temporal reference calculated at the BIPM using data from some two hundred atomic clocks in over fifty national laboratories; the scale unit of TAI is kept as close as possible to SI second. BIPM estimates that TAI does not lose or gain with respect to an imaginary perfect clock by more than about one tenth of a microsecond (0.0000001 second) per year.

TAI is a uniform and stable scale which does not, therefore, keep in step with the slightly irregular rotation of the Earth. For public and practical purposes it is necessary to have a scale that, in the long term, does. Such a scale is Coordinated Universal Time (UTC).

SI second

BIPM

UTC

botany & gardening

  taproot : the main root of a plant, usually central, which grows directly downwards, bearing smaller lateral roots.

social slogan              acronym

  TATA : There Are Thousand Alternatives : refers to a slogan attributed to Susan George, a prominent critic of neoliberal globalization; related to the main political slogan AWIS (Another World Is Possible) of the alter-globalization movement World Social Forum. Compare with: TINA.

economics

  tax : taxation : a compulsory transfer of money (or occasionally of goods and services) from private individuals, institutions or groups to the government; it is one of the principal means by which a government finances its expenditure. It may be levied upon wealth or income (a direct tax), or in the form of a surcharge on prices (an indirect tax).
technique : tools (implements, instruments, appliances, machines), methods (procedures) and skills of performing something. Synonym: technic.

philosophy

  teleology : the structure of goals and purposes; in somewhat narrower meaning it is a belief, as that of vitalism (opposed to mechanism), that natural phenomena are determined not only by mechanical causes but by an overall design or purpose in Nature.

vitalism

mechanism

acronym

 

TEMS : Terrestrial Ecosystem Monitoring Sites : an international directory of sites (named T.Sites) and networks that carry out long-term, terrestrial in-situ monitoring and research activities. The database provides information on the "who, what and where" that can be useful to both the scientific community and policy-makers.                       http://www.fao.org/gtos/tems

botany & gardening

  tendril : a filiform spiral shoot of a climbing plant that clings or coils around an object for the purpose of support.
    teratogen : an agent causing formation of a congenital anomaly or monstrosity. congenital
    terse : neatly or effectively concise; brief and pithy (as language).

botany & gardening

  thallus : an indifferentiated plant body without true stems, leaves, or roots; 
    thesaurus : a dictionary of synonyms and antonyms; (in a broader sense) any dictionary, encyclopedia or other comprehensive reference book.

synonym

antonym

gardening

  thicket : a thick growth of underbrush, small trees, or shrubs; a number of shrubs and small trees etc. growing close together.
    think tank : a research organization (institute, corporation, or group) that analyzes political or social or economic etc problems for the government or for business firms. The term that has only found use since the 1950s, and there is still some debate over what constitutes the first think tank. One candidate is the Fabian Society of Britain, founded in 1884 to promote gradual social change, and another is The Brookings Institution, founded in the US in 1916. The term ‘think tank’ itself was originally used in reference to organizations that offered military advice, most notably the RAND Corporation, formed originally in 1945.
    thought : the action or process of thinking; cognition; serious consideration; the power to imagine.

 

  thrift : economical management of money and resources; frugality or the wise management of money and resources.

meteorology

  thunder : the sound wave produced as a lightning stroke heats the air causing it to rapidly expand.

meteorology

  thunderstorm : a storm with lightning and thunder, produced by a cumulonimbus cloud, and usually associated with gusty winds, heavy rain, and sometimes hail and tornadoes.

Internet lingo

  TIA : thanks in advance

social slogan              acronym

  TINA : There Is No Alternative : refers to a slogan attributed to Margaret Thatcher, once prime minister of Britain, i.e., that there is no alternative to global free-market capitalism. This is the central slogan of economic liberalism, arguing that free markets, free trade, and capitalist globalization are the only way in which modern societies can go. Compare with: TATA.

botany & gardening

  tomentose : hairy; covered with short, matted, woolly hairs.
    tool : a device (e.g. engine) or a procedure (e.g. algorithm) that provides a mechanical or mental advantage in accomplishing a task; in a narrower meaning, the term tool  is used to describe simple mechanical tools (e.g. hammer) which do not consist of somewhat independently operated parts (as opposed to machine).

geography

  toponym : a name of a place (city, district, island, etc.)

meteorology

  tornado : a violently rotating column of air below the base of a thunderstorm, and in contact with the ground; a tornado does not require the visible presence of a condensation funnel cloud.

meteorology

tsunami : an ocean wave produced by a sub-marine earthquake, landslide, or volcanic eruption. These waves may reach enormous dimensions and have sufficient energy to travel across entire oceans.

Internet lingo

  TTFN : ta-ta for now

botany & gardening

  tuber : a fleshy, rouded part of a subterranean stem, as the potato or arrowroot; new plants develop from the buds, or eyes, that grow in the axils of the minute scale leaves of a tuber.

botany & gardening

  tubercle : a small tuber or tuberlike root growth.

geography : toponym

Tule, Tular, Tulare : tule is the common Mexican Spanish name for the cattail or bulrush (Scriptus sp.) and similar aquatic plants, derived from Aztec tollin; the place where they grow is called a tular. Nowadays the names Tule, Tulare, and the diminutive Tularcitos are used in more than fifty place names in California alone, e.g. Tule River, Tulare (city), Tulare Lake, and Tulare Co.

botany & gardening

  turion : a scaly, solitary shoot springing out of the ground, often fleshy as in the asparagus.
 
 

UPDATED : 2008-01-30

WEBSITE  EDITOR : Krešimir J. Adamić