15-letter words containing a, b, o, d
- bit-mapped font — a computer font whose characters are held in memory as series of dots.
- black horehound — a hairy unpleasant-smelling chiefly Mediterranean plant, Ballota nigra, having clusters of purple flowers: family Lamiaceae (labiates)
- bladder campion — a European caryophyllaceous plant, Silene vulgaris, having white flowers with an inflated calyx
- blasting powder — a form of gunpowder made with sodium nitrate instead of saltpeter, used chiefly for blasting rock, ore, etc.
- blockade runner — a person, ship etc that tries to carry goods through a blockade
- blockade-runner — a ship or person that passes through a blockade.
- blue cattle dog — an Australian breed of dog with a bluish coat, developed for herding cattle
- blue wood aster — a composite plant, Aster cordifolius, of North America, having heart-shaped leaves and pale-blue flowers.
- bo diddley beat — a type of syncopated Black rhythm, frequently used in rock music
- board of health — an agency with responsibility for health in state, country, etc
- board of parole — an agency that determines which prisoners are to be released on parole
- board-certified — A doctor who is board-certified has passed tests and meets the standards of a board of specialists in their area of medicine.
- boarding school — A boarding school is a school which some or all of the pupils live in during the school term. Compare day school.
- boating holiday — a holiday spent sailing or travelling in a canal boat, cruiser, etc
- bobbin and joan — the European arum, Arum maculatum.
- body mass index — A person's body mass index is a measurement that represents the relationship between their weight and their height.
- body toning bar — a weighted exercise bar made of steel encased in a layer of foam, used for toning and strength training.
- boiled potatoes — potatoes, usually peeled, cooked in boiling water
- borderline case — a person or thing that is not clearly classifiable as something
- borrower's card — a card issued by a library to individuals or organizations entitling them or their representatives to borrow materials.
- brand extension — the practice of using a well-known brand name to promote new products or services in unrelated fields
- brave new world — If someone refers to a brave new world, they are talking about a situation or system that has recently been created and that people think will be successful and fair.
- bread and honey — money
- break the mould — If you say that someone breaks the mould, you mean that they do completely different things from what has been done before or from what is usually done.
- break-in period — a period during which certain restrictions or moderation in operating should be followed, as the avoidance of high speed, rapid acceleration, or severe braking for a new automobile.
- breakdown cover — insurance cover against breakdowns in a vehicle
- breeder reactor — a type of nuclear reactor that produces more fissionable material than it consumes
- breeding season — the time of year during which animals breed
- bring to a head — to bring or be brought to a crisis
- broadcast storm — (networking) A broadcast on a network that causes multiple hosts to respond by broadcasting themselves, causing the storm to grow exponentially in severity. See network meltdown.
- bronze diabetes — hemochromatosis.
- bronzed grackle — the western subspecies of the American bird, the common grackle, Quiscalus quiscula versicolor, having bronzy, iridescent plumage.
- brown-and-serve — requiring only a brief period of browning, as in an oven, before being ready to serve: brown-and-serve rolls.
- buffalo soldier — (formerly, especially among American Indians) a black soldier.
- bullnose header — bull header (def 1).
- bullnose-header — Also called bullnose header. a brick having one of the edges across its width rounded for laying as a header in a sill or the like.
- calydonian boar — a savage boar sent by Artemis to destroy Calydon, a city in Aetolia, because its king had neglected to sacrifice to her. It was killed by Meleager, the king's son
- carbazotic acid — picric acid.
- carbon monoxide — Carbon monoxide is a poisonous gas that is produced especially by the engines of vehicles.
- carboxylic acid — any of a class of organic acids containing the carboxyl group
- cartesian doubt — willful suspension of all interpretations of experience that are not absolutely certain: used as a method of deriving, by elimination of such uncertainties, axioms upon which to base theories.
- catchment board — a public body concerned with the conservation and organization of water supply from a catchment area
- chandler wobble — a slight, irregular nutation of the earth's rotational axis with a period of c. 428 days
- child abduction — the crime of removing a child from its rightful home
- chromosome band — any of the transverse bands that appear on a chromosome after staining. The banding pattern is unique to each type of chromosome, allowing characterization
- cinderella book — (publication) "Introduction to Automata Theory, Languages, and Computation", by John Hopcroft and Jeffrey Ullman, (Addison-Wesley, 1979). So called because the cover depicts a girl (putatively Cinderella) sitting in front of a Rube Goldberg device and holding a rope coming out of it. On the back cover, the device is in shambles after she has (inevitably) pulled on the rope. See also book titles.
- climb indicator — an instrument that shows the rate of ascent or descent of an aircraft, operating on a differential pressure principle.
- colorado beetle — a black-and-yellow beetle, Leptinotarsa decemlineata, that is a serious pest of potatoes, feeding on the leaves: family Chrysomelidae
- commendableness — The state or quality of being commendable.
- contract bridge — the most common variety of bridge, in which the declarer receives points counting towards game and rubber only for tricks he bids as well as makes, any overtricks receiving bonus points