13-letter words containing a, b, l, i, n
- back-slapping — Back-slapping is noisy, cheerful behaviour which people use in order to show affection or appreciation to each other.
- backing light — Also called backing striplight, backing strip. Theater. a striplight providing diffused illumination for the background of a stage set.
- backpedalling — to retard the forward motion by pressing backward on the pedal, especially of a bicycle with coaster brakes.
- bacteriolysin — an antibody which, when it combines with bacterial cells, causes lysis of those cells, thus destroying them
- baffin island — the largest island of the Canadian Arctic, between Greenland and Hudson Bay. Area: 476 560 sq km (184 000 sq miles)
- bail bondsman — an individual or firm that lends bail money to defendants awaiting trial
- balanced diet — a diet consisting of the proper quantities and proportions of foods needed to maintain health or growth.
- balanced line — a transmission line in which the oppositely directed components are symmetrical with respect to each other and to the ground.
- balancing act — If you perform a balancing act, you try to deal successfully with two or more people, groups, or situations that are in opposition to each other.
- balch springs — a town in NE Texas.
- balkanization — If you disapprove of the division of a country into separate independent states, you can refer to the Balkanization of the country.
- ball and ring — a simplified bead-and-reel turning, used especially in English and American furniture of the 17th century.
- ball handling — the control of the ball, as in basketball or soccer, by skillful dribbling and accurate passing.
- banana family — the plant family Musaceae, characterized by large treelike herbaceous plants of tropical regions, having a trunk formed by spiraling leaf sheaths, and bearing large leaves, flower clusters above leathery red-to-purple bracts, and fleshy fruit in clusters, including the banana and plantain.
- banderilleros — Plural form of banderillero.
- banker's bill — a banknote
- bar-and-grill — a place where food and alcoholic drinks are served to customers; a combined barroom and grillroom.
- baritone clef — an F clef locating F below middle C on the third line of the staff.
- baroclinicity — a common state of fluid stratification in which surfaces of constant pressure and others of constant density are not parallel but intersect.
- baronial hall — a large building or room owned by a baron
- barrel engine — an engine having cylinders arranged around and parallel to a shaft, which they rotate by means of the contact of their piston rods with a swash plate or cam on the shaft.
- bartholinitis — Inflammation of Bartholin's cyst.
- basal ganglia — the thalamus together with other closely related masses of grey matter, situated near the base of the brain
- baseline cost — the projected cost for an undertaking at the time it is budgeted
- basic english — a simplified form of English, proposed by C. K. Ogden and I. A. Richards, containing a vocabulary of approximately 850 of the commonest English words, intended as an international language
- bass clarinet — a clarinet with the lowest range, in the octave below the B-flat clarinet
- batan islands — a group of islands in the Philippines, north of Luzon. Capital: Basco. Pop: 16 467 (2000). Area: 197 sq km (76 sq miles)
- bathylimnetic — (of an organism) living in the depths of lakes and marshes
- baton twirler — someone who twirls a baton, esp a drum major or majorette
- bazillionaire — (humorous) An incredibly rich person.
- bearing plate — a heavy metal plate for receiving and distributing concentrated weight, as from a column or one end of a truss.
- beautifulness — having beauty; possessing qualities that give great pleasure or satisfaction to see, hear, think about, etc.; delighting the senses or mind: a beautiful dress; a beautiful speech.
- bedding plane — the surface separating two successive layers of stratified rock
- bedding plant — A bedding plant is a plant which lasts for one year. It is put in a flower bed before it flowers, and is then removed when it has finished flowering.
- bedding-plant — bedmaker (def 1).
- beetlebrained — stupid
- belgian congo — former Belgian colony (1908-60) in central Africa: now the country of Democratic Republic of the Congo
- bellefontaine — a city in W Ohio.
- belly landing — the landing of an aircraft on its fuselage without use of its landing gear
- benedictional — a book of benedictions or blessings
- beneficential — relating to beneficence
- bengal quince — bael.
- benthopelagic — relating to species living at the bottom of the sea
- benzimidazole — a crystalline growth-inhibiting compound
- berkeleianism — the philosophical system of George Berkeley, holding that objects exist only when perceived, that God's perception sustains the universe, and that there is no independent substratum or substance in which these perceptions inhere
- beta globulin — a blood plasma protein that is separable from other globulins by electrophoresis.
- beta-blocking — acting to inhibit the activity of the nerves that are stimulated by adrenaline
- bible reading — a passage from the Bible, esp one read in a service
- bicentennials — pertaining to or in honor of a 200th anniversary: bicentennial celebration; a bicentennial exposition.
- biconditional — (of a proposition) asserting that the existence or occurrence of one thing or event depends on, and is dependent on, the existence or occurrence of another, as “A if and only if B.”.