Key terms & definitions

The way a material behaves or responds to external influences, such as forces, heat or electricity.

The balance between the time and demands of paid work and those of personal life, family and rest.

Practical acts of compassion, such as feeding hungry people, sheltering homeless people and caring for the sick.

The piece of material being shaped or processed.

Government-funded employment intended to give unemployed people an income while they carry out useful work.

The relationship between time spent exercising and time spent resting during training.

Chinese Communist Party organisers sent into villages to mobilise peasants and carry out policies such as attacks on landlords and land redistribution.

Industrial action in which workers follow their contractual duties strictly and refuse additional tasks, slowing normal operations.

A city whose economic, political or cultural influence extends internationally, beyond its own country.

The amount of a material used worldwide over a period of time.

An international fellowship of Christian churches, founded in 1948, that works towards Christian unity, shared witness, justice and peace.

A British Jewish charity that supports vulnerable Jewish people and people beyond the Jewish community through emergency assistance, care and programmes supporting independence.

Clinging to people, possessions or status in a way that distracts from God and moral responsibilities; also called moh.

A perspective through which someone understands society and the social world.

The community of Christians throughout the world, across different countries and denominations.

The collection of websites and web pages accessed over the Internet using a web browser.

Malware that can replicate and spread between computers, including across networks, without a user distributing it.

A screw-shaped worm meshing with a toothed wheel, usually transmitting motion between shafts at right angles and providing a large speed reduction.

An expression of devotion, honour and praise to God, individually or with others.

A song used to express devotion to God, often through praise, thanksgiving or prayer; contemporary examples frequently use verses and a repeated chorus.

The entry and multiplication of harmful microorganisms in a wound, which can damage tissue and prevent healing.

Fabric made by interlacing two sets of yarns at right angles: lengthwise warp yarns and crosswise weft yarns.

Fabric made by interlacing warp and weft yarns, normally at right angles, on a loom.

Enclosing a filling in another food, such as pastry, a tortilla or seaweed.

Intense anger, often carrying associations of punishment or vengeance.

A written royal order sent to officials to communicate and enforce the king’s instructions.

An operation that sends data from a program into a file for storage.

An operation that saves or changes data in storage. Flash memory supports a limited number of write cycles before its cells wear out.

A writer’s deliberate choice, such as dialogue, characterisation, stage directions, contrast or the ordering of events.

A choice used to communicate meaning, such as vocabulary, imagery, tone, sentence construction, form or the organisation of a text.