tuple
n.— «A tuple is neither an exotic fungus nor an adults-only entertainment. Defined with misleading simplicity as “a series of typed values,” the tuple can be to distributed computing what a base pair is to a molecule of DNA: Tuples carry information and provide their own form of organization—in a manner that may seem inefficient—but they enable adaptation to situations not foreseeable when a system was conceived. A simple tuple might be something like “‘John Doe,’ 2/25/1980, 123-45-6789”: a series comprising a character string, a date and a Social Security number. Pattern-matching algorithms readily match such “tuple signatures,” with or without mechanisms for “don’t care” values or for binding pieces of tuples to the variables in a computer program.» —“Tuple Data Model Faces Real World” by Peter Coffee eWeek Aug. 27, 2001. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
Imagine telling someone how to get to your home, but without using the name of your street, or any other street within ten miles. Could you do it? We take street names for granted, but these words are useful for far more, like applying for a job or...
An anadrome is a word that forms a whole new word when you spell it backwards. For example, the word “stressed” spelled backwards is “desserts.” Some people’s first names are anadromes. There’s the girl named Noel...