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16-letter words containing a, b, i, h

  • blue in the face — the pure color of a clear sky; the primary color between green and violet in the visible spectrum, an effect of light with a wavelength between 450 and 500 nm.
  • bohemian waxwing — any of several songbirds of the family Bombycillidae, having a showy crest and certain feathers tipped with a red, waxy material, as Bombycilla garrulus (Bohemian waxwing) of the Northern Hemisphere.
  • bonhomme richard — the flagship of John Paul Jones.
  • boreal chickadee — a brown-capped, black-throated chickadee (Parus hudsonicus) found near the Atlantic coast from Labrador to N New York
  • bornholm disease — an epidemic virus infection characterized by pain round the base of the chest
  • branchial groove — one of a series of rudimentary depressions on the surface of the embryo between adjacent branchial arches, homologous to the branchial clefts of gill-breathing ancestral forms.
  • branchiopneustic — breathing by means of gills, as certain aquatic insect larvae.
  • break faith with — If you break faith with someone you made a promise to or something you believed in, you stop acting in a way that supports them.
  • bright and early — very early in the morning
  • bright's disease — chronic inflammation of the kidneys; chronic nephritis
  • british columbia — a province of W Canada, on the Pacific coast: largely mountainous with extensive forests, rich mineral resources, and important fisheries. Capital: Victoria. Pop: 4 400 057 (2011 est). Area: 930 532 sq km (359 279 sq miles)
  • british honduras — Belize
  • british longhair — a breed of large cat with a semi-long thick soft coat
  • bronchial asthma — asthma.
  • bronchopneumonia — inflammation of the lungs, originating in the bronchioles
  • buckthorn family — the plant family Rhamnaceae, characterized by shrubs and trees having alternate, simple leaves, clusters of small flowers, and fruit in the form of a drupe or capsule, and including the buckthorn, cascara, and New Jersey tea.
  • buckwheat family — the plant family Polygonaceae, characterized by herbaceous plants, vines, shrubs, and trees having stems with swollen joints, simple leaves, small, petalless flowers, and fruit in the form of an achene, and including the buckwheat, dock, knotweed, rhubarb, sea grape, and smartweed.
  • burkitt lymphoma — a rare type of tumour of the white blood cells, occurring mainly in Africa and associated with infection by Epstein-Barr virus
  • business machine — a machine for expediting clerical work, as a tabulator or adding machine.
  • busman's holiday — If you have a holiday, but spend it doing something similar to your usual work, you can refer to it as a busman's holiday.
  • buying behaviour — the behaviours displayed by consumers when they purchase things, such as preferences, price points, etc
  • byzantine church — Orthodox Church (def 1).
  • caducibranchiate — (of many amphibians, such as frogs) having gills during one stage of the life cycle only
  • catch sb napping — If someone is caught napping, something happens when they are not prepared for it, although they should have been.
  • cepheid variable — any of a class of variable stars with regular cycles of variations in luminosity (most ranging from three to fifty days). There is a relationship between the periods of variation and the absolute magnitudes, which is used for measuring the distance of such stars
  • chafe at the bit — to be impatient or vexed, as because of delay
  • champ at the bit — If someone is champing at the bit or is chomping at the bit, they are very impatient to do something, but they are prevented from doing it, usually by circumstances that they have no control over.
  • charitable trust — a trust set up for the benefit of a charity that complies with the regulations of the Charity Commissioners to enable it to be exempt from paying income tax
  • chiclet keyboard — (hardware, abuse)   A keyboard with a small, flat rectangular or lozenge-shaped rubber or plastic keys that look like pieces of Chiclets chewing gum. Used especially to describe the original IBM PCjr keyboard. Vendors unanimously liked these because they were cheap, and a lot of early portable and laptop computers were launched with them. Customers rejected the idea with almost equal unanimity, and chiclets are not often seen on anything larger than a digital watch any more.
  • chilean firebush — South American shrub with scarlet flowers
  • chinese snowball — a Chinese shrub, Viburnum macrocephalum, of the honeysuckle family, having scurfy, hairy twigs, hairy leaves, and white flowers in large, showy, globelike clusters.
  • chomp at the bit — champ at the bit (see phrase under champ1)
  • christmas beetle — any of various greenish-gold Australian scarab beetles of the genus Anoplognathus, which are common in summer
  • chromatic number — (mathematics)   The smallest number of colours necessary to colour the nodes of a graph so that no two adjacent nodes have the same colour. See also: four colour map theorem.
  • chuvash republic — a constituent republic of W central Russia, in the middle Volga valley: generally low-lying with undulating plains and large areas of forest. Capital: Cheboksary. Pop: 1 313 900 (2002). Area: 18 300 sq km (7064 sq miles)
  • columbia heights — a city in SE Minnesota, near Minneapolis.
  • combination shot — a shot in pool in which the cue ball strikes at least one object ball before contact is made with the ball to be pocketed.
  • database machine — (hardware)   A computer or special hardware that stores and retrieves data from a database. It is specially designed for database access and is coupled to the main (front-end) computer(s) by a high-speed channel. This contrasts with a database server, which is a computer in a local area network that holds a database. The database machine is tightly coupled to the main CPU, whereas the database server is loosely coupled via the network.
  • daylight robbery — If someone charges you a great deal of money for something and you think this is unfair or unreasonable, you can refer to this as daylight robbery.
  • dearborn heights — city in SE Mich.: suburb of Detroit: pop. 58,000
  • debating chamber — a room where a legislative assembly holds debates
  • deoxyhaemoglobin — (biochemistry) The form of haemoglobin that has released its oxygen.
  • derbyshire chair — a chair of the mid-17th century, made of oak, usually without arms, and having a back of two carved rails between square uprights.
  • diamondback moth — a small moth Plutella xylostella that has diamond-shaped markings on the underside of its front wings that are visible when the wings are folded
  • diethyl carbinol — a colorless, liquid isomer of amyl alcohol, (CH3CH2)2CHOH, used in drugs and as a solvent
  • dimethylcarbinol — isopropyl alcohol.
  • disestablishment — to deprive of the character of being established; cancel; abolish.
  • dishonorableness — The property of being dishonorable.
  • eastern whipbird — an Australian whipbird, Psophodes olivaceus
  • erymanthian boar — a wild boar that ravaged the district around Mount Erymanthus: captured by Hercules as his fourth labour
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