20-letter words containing a, b, e
- basal cell carcinoma — a common and usually curable skin cancer that arises from epithelial cells and rarely metastasizes: often associated with overexposure to sunlight.
- basal metabolic rate — the rate at which heat is produced by the body at rest, 12 to 14 hours after eating, measured in kilocalories per square metre of body surface per hour
- basic encoding rules — (protocol, standard) (BER) ASN.1 encoding rules for producing self-identifying and self-delimiting transfer syntax for data structures described in ASN.1 notations. BER is an self-identifying and self-delimiting encoding scheme, which means that each data value can be identified, extracted and decoded individually. Huw Rogers once described BER as "a triumph of bloated theory over clean implementation". He also criticises it as designed around bitstreams with arbitrary boundaries between data which can only be determined at a high level. Documents: ITU-T X.690, ISO 8825-1. See also CER, DER, PER.
- basic lead carbonate — ceruse.
- basic object adapter — (architecture) (BOA) Part of the CORBA architecture.
- basic oxygen process — a process for refining steel in which oxygen is blown into the molten iron
- basic rate interface — (communications) (BRI, 2B+D, 2B1D) An Integrated Services Digital Network channel consisting of two 64 kbps "bearer" (B) channels and one 16 kbps "delta" (D) channel, giving a total data rate of 144 kbps. The B channels are used for voice or user data, and the D channel is used for control and signalling and/or X.25 packet networking. BRI is the kind of ISDN interface most likely to be found in residential service.
- bats-wing coral-tree — a small tree, Erythrina verspertilio, of tropical and subtropical Australia with red flowers and leaves shaped like the wings of a bat
- be called to the bar — to become a barrister
- be hard pushed to do — If you are hard pushed to do something, you find it very difficult to do it.
- be in the market for — to wish to buy or acquire
- be on someone's case — an instance of the occurrence, existence, etc., of something: Sailing in such a storm was a case of poor judgment.
- be set in one's ways — If you say that someone is set in their ways, you are being critical of the fact that they have fixed habits and ideas which they will not easily change, even though they may be old-fashioned.
- be someone's funeral — to be someone's problem, worry, etc. and not another's
- be-twixt and between — betwixt and between, neither the one nor the other; in a middle or unresolved position: Not wanting to side with either her father or her mother, she was betwixt and between.
- beat around the bush — to talk around a subject without getting to the point
- beat the shit out of — to give a severe beating to
- beaverhead mountains — a mountain range on the border of E Idaho and SW Montana, in the Bitterroot Range. 10,961 feet (3343 meters).
- been-there done-that — an exclamation expressing familiarity and boredom with a situation, experience, etc
- beggar-your-neighbor — a children's card game for two, played with 52 cards, that is won when a player captures all of the cards.
- belgian shepherd dog — a medium-sized well-proportioned dog of a breed that resembles an Alsatian in appearance and is often used as a sheepdog or a guard dog
- benavente y martinez — Jacinto. 1866–1954, Spanish dramatist and critic, who wrote over 150 plays. Nobel prize for literature 1922
- benoit b. mandelbrot — Benoit Mandelbrot
- benzene hexachloride — a compound, C6H6Cl6, used as an insecticide
- benzenesulfonic acid — a fine, needlelike substance, C 6 H 6 SO 3 , used chiefly as a catalyst and in the synthesis of phenol, resorcinol, and other organic products.
- benztropine mesylate — a synthetic anticholinergic, C 21 H 25 NO⋅CH 4 O 3 S, used in the treatment of Parkinson's disease.
- benzyl isoamyl ether — a colorless liquid, C 12 H 18 O, used in soap perfumes.
- bernard of clairvaux — Saint. ?1090–1153, French abbot and theologian, who founded the stricter branch of the Cistercians in 1115
- bernese mountain dog — a strong sturdy dog of a breed with a bushy tail and a long silky black coat with reddish-brown and white markings, often used as a working farm dog
- binary coded decimal — (data) (BCD, packed decimal) A number representation where a number is expressed as a sequence of decimal digits and then each decimal digit is encoded as a four-bit binary number (a nibble). E.g. decimal 92 would be encoded as the eight-bit sequence 1001 0010. In some cases, the right-most nibble contains the sign (positive or negative). It is easier to convert decimal numbers to and from BCD than binary and, though BCD is often converted to binary for arithmetic processing, it is possible to build hardware that operates directly on BCD.
- binary-coded decimal — a number in binary code written in groups of four bits, each group representing one digit of the corresponding decimal number
- binomial coefficient — any of the numerical factors which multiply the successive terms in a binomial expansion; any term of the form n!/(n–k)!k!: written (nk), nCk, or Cnk
- biogeochemical cycle — the cycle in which nitrogen, carbon, and other inorganic elements of the soil, atmosphere, etc. of a region are converted into the organic substances of animals or plants and released back into the environment
- biological diversity — Biological diversity is the same as biodiversity.
- biological half life — Physics. the time required for one half the atoms of a given amount of a radioactive substance to disintegrate.
- biological half-life — the time required for half of a quantity of radioactive material absorbed by a living tissue or organism to be naturally eliminated
- bird-footed dinosaur — theropod.
- bismarck archipelago — a group of over 200 islands in the SW Pacific, northeast of New Guinea: part of Papua New Guinea. Main islands: New Britain, New Ireland, Lavongai, and the Admiralty Islands. Chief town: Rabaul, on New Britain. Pop: 566 610 (2000). Area: 49 658 sq km (19 173 sq miles)
- black lung (disease) — a disease of the lungs caused by the inhalation of coal dust; anthracosis
- black-bellied plover — a large plover, Pluvialis squatarola, of both the New and Old Worlds, having black underparts when in nuptial plumage.
- black-throated diver — a diving bird, Gavia arctica, found in Europe and Asia, and a rare summer visitor to the UK
- blackburnian warbler — a black-and-white North American wood warbler, Dendroica fusca, having an orange throat and an orange and black head.
- blast-furnace cement — a type of cement made from a blend of ordinary Portland cement and crushed slag from a blast furnace. It has lower setting properties than ordinary Portland cement
- blending inheritance — the blending of characteristics of the parents in the offspring, as in a pink flower that results from the mating of a red flower with a white one
- blood on one's hands — If you say that someone has a person's blood on their hands, you mean that they are responsible for that person's death.
- blow up in sb's face — If something that you have planned blows up in your face, it goes wrong unexpectedly, with the result that you suffer.
- blue ridge mountains — a mountain range in the eastern US, extending from West Virginia into Georgia: part of the Appalachian mountains. Highest peak: Mount Mitchell, 2038 m (6684 ft)
- blue screen of death — (humour) (BSOD) The infamous white-on-blue text screen which appears when Microsoft Windows crashes. BSOD is mostly seen on the 16-bit systems such as Windows 3.1, but also on Windows 95 and apparently even under Windows NT 4. It is most likely to be caused by a GPF, although Windows 95 can do it if you've removed a required CD-ROM from the drive. It is often impossible to recover cleanly from a BSOD. The acronym BSOD is sometimes used as a verb, e.g. "Windoze just keeps BSODing on me today".
- board of supervisors — the governing body of a county in many U.S. states, especially in the Midwest and the East, consisting of from 15 to 100 members elected from towns, townships, cities, or wards.
- bobbin and fly frame — a roving machine used in the final stages of converting spun cotton fiber into yarn.