Key terms & definitions

An obligation to someone who has provided help; in literature, debt can be financial, emotional or both.

An arrangement in which some of a country’s debt is cancelled or redirected in return for funding or commitments to protect the environment.

Payments of interest on money the government has borrowed.

A person who owes money to someone else.

The cancellation or reduction of debt, reducing the repayments a borrower must make.

A tool that lets a programmer control execution and inspect variable values to investigate errors.

The process of finding and correcting errors in a program.

A section of the Rosary consisting of one Our Father, ten Hail Mary prayers and one Glory Be.

A period of ten years, such as the 1920s, which runs from 1920 to 1929.

Moral or cultural decline, often associated with excessive comfort and self-indulgence.

The Ten Commandments, recorded in Exodus 20, which guide relationships with God and with other people.

The breakdown of dead material, usually involving decomposers such as bacteria and fungi.

The breakdown of dead organic material by decomposers, such as bacteria and fungi.

A change in which a quantity decreases over time, often by the same proportion or percentage in each period.

The fading of information from memory over time.

The region of India south of the northern plains, where Aurangzeb fought the Marathas and conquered Bijapur and Golkonda.

King of Dacia who opposed Trajan in the wars of AD 101–102 and AD 105–106; he took his own life rather than be captured.

Deliberately causing someone to believe something false, for example by lying or concealing an identity.

Acceleration in the direction opposite to the object's velocity, causing its speed to decrease.

A decrease in speed.

An official belonging to a board of ten men. The Roman decemvirs were appointed to produce written laws and exercised consular powers.

A board of ten officials; in this context, the officials appointed to draw up Rome’s written laws and exercise governmental authority.

Giving more decision-making power to smaller or local organisations rather than concentrating it at the centre.

The movement of businesses and other activities away from a city’s centre towards its suburbs or surrounding areas.

Passing decision-making authority down the hierarchy to managers or employees closer to day-to-day operations.

The ability to consider more than one feature of an object or situation at the same time.

The ability to move beyond one’s own viewpoint or a single feature of a situation and consider other perspectives or features.

Deliberately making someone believe something false, through words, appearances or staged events.

Intentionally misleading research participants about a key aspect of a study, including giving false information or concealing that research is taking place.

Misleading participants or withholding information about the true purpose or procedure of research.