Disc

Look up disc or disk in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

A disc (International English) or disk (American English), from Latin discus which itself derives from Greek δίσκος, is a flat circular object. It may also refer to:

Data storage

• Disk storage, a general category of data storage mechanisms
  • Magnetic disk
    • Floppy disk, a magnetic data storage device using a flexible disc
    • Hard disk drive, a non-volatile magnetic data storage device
  • Optical disc, commonly a polycarbonate disc
    • Blu-ray Disc (BD), a high-density optical disc intended mainly for video storage
    • Compact Disc (CD), a form of optical disc used mainly for audio data
    • Digital Versatile Disc (DVD), a form of optical disc used mainly for video and other data
    • Enhanced Versatile Disc (EVD), an optical medium-based digital audio/video format under development
    • High-Definition Digital Versatile Disc (HD DVD), a high-density optical disc intended mainly for video storage
    • Holographic Versatile Disc (HVD), a next generation ultra-high-density optical disc format replacement for Blu-ray
    • Laserdisc (LD), the first commercial optical disc storage medium
    • MiniDisc (MD), a magneto-optical disc-based data storage device
  • Disc film, a still-photography film format
  • RAM disk, a volatile solid state drive
• Analog discs typically relying on a modulated groove to record signals
  • Gramophone record, an analog recording medium
  • LP record, a specific type of gramophone record
  • Aluminum disc, an analog recording disc used mainly for early radio recordings
  • Acetate disc, an aluminium disc coated with nitrocellulose lacquer

Science

Astronomy

• Accretion disc, diffuse material in orbital motion around a central body such as a star or black hole
• Debris disk, a ring shaped circumstellar disk of dust and debris in orbit around a star
• Disc (galaxy), a disc-shaped group of stars
• Protoplanetary disk, a rotating disc of dense gas surrounding a newly formed star, a form of accretion disc
• Scattered disc, a distant region of the Solar System thinly populated by icy minor planets

Biology

• Death-inducing signaling complex, a multi-protein complex formed by members of the death receptor family of apoptosis-inducing cellular receptors
• Disk, an enlargement or outgrowth from the receptacle of the flower
• Intervertebral disc, in animal anatomy, part of the spine
• Placenta or placental disc, in mammals, an organ that connects a developing fetus to its mother's uterus
• Optic disc, in the retina

Mathematics

• Disk (mathematics), the region in a plane enclosed by a circle
• Disk algebra, a concept in function theory
• Unit disk, a disk with radius one

Psychology

• DISC1 (Disrupted in Schizophrenia 1), a human gene with a wide array of interactions
• DISC assessment, in psychology, a group of psychometric tests based on the work of William Moulton Marston

Motoring

• Disc brake, a device for slowing or stopping the rotation of a wheel
• Disc parking, a parking regulation with free parking when using a parking disc (clock disc)
• Vehicle licence, commonly known as a "tax disc" in the UK, is a vehicle licence receipt placed inside the windscreen

DISC

• Defence Intelligence and Security Centre (DISC), location of the Headquarters of both the Defence College of Intelligence and the British Army Intelligence Corps
• Delaware Independent School Conference (DISC) or Independent Conference (Delaware), a high-school sports conference
• Devrimci İşçi Sendikaları Konfederasyonu ("DİSK") (Confederation of Revolutionary Trade Unions of Turkey in English), a trade union centre
• Día Internacional de la Seguridad de Cómputo (DISC) ("International Computer Security Day" in English), an academic conference held annually at the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico (UNAM) since 1994
• Domestic international sales corporation (DISC), a provision in U.S. tax law
• Dundee International Sports Centre (DISC), a sports centre in Scotland
• International Symposium on Distributed Computing, abbreviated as "DISC", an academic conference

Other uses

• Disc (band), an American experimental music band
• Disc (magazine), a British music magazine, at one time known as Disc and Music Echo
• Disc harrow, a farm implement
• Disc jockey, a person who selects and plays pre-recorded music for an audience
• Discworld, a comedic fantasy book series by the British author Terry Pratchett
• Flying disc, a throwing toy, also known as the Frisbee
• Disk (album), a 1995 EP by electronic artist Moby

See also

• Spelling of disc
• Discus (disambiguation), disc in Latin

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