cataplasm
catapult
cataract
catarhine
catarrh
catastrophe
1. A terrible disaster or accident; especially, one that leads to a great loss of life.
2. A total or absolute failure, often in humiliating or embarrassing circumstances.
3. In geology, a violent seismic change; a sudden and violent change in the Earth's crust caused by an earthquake, flood, or any other natural process; a cataclysm.
4. An insurance event causing huge insurance claims, or an event causing losses of insured property above a specific monetary limit and affecting a substantial number of policyholders and insurers.
catathermometer, katathermometer
1. An alcohol thermometer, with a dry bulb and a wet bulb, which measures how quickly air is cooling; and so, permitting an estimate of evaporation of moisture from the body.
2. A device consisting of two thermometers, one a dry bulb and the other a wet bulb.
Both are heated to 110°F (43.3°C) and the time required for each thermometer to fall from 100° to 90°F (37.8° to 32.2°C) is noted. The dry bulb gives the cooling power by radiation and convection, the wet bulb by radiation, convection, and evaporation.
From this, the temperature as it affects the body can be deduced; or it is a measure of the heat content of the environment that takes into account air movement as well as temperature.
catatonia
catatropia
catechism
category
1. A class or division in a scheme of classification.
2. In logic, any of the various basic concepts into which all knowledge can be classified.
cathedra
cathedral
cathode
1. The path by which an electric current leaves the electrolyte and passes into the negative pole.
2. The point or surface in contact with the negative pole; in electro-metallurgy the object to be electro-plated.
3. A negatively charged electrode, as of an electrolytic cell, a storage battery, or an electron tube.
4. The positively charged terminal of a primary cell or a storage battery that is supplying current.
5. From Greek kathodos, descent (kat-, kata-, cata-) + hodos, way, path.
catholic
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