13-letter words containing a, b, r, t
- bakewell tart — an open tart having a pastry base and a layer of jam and filled with almond-flavoured sponge cake
- balanced tree — (algorithm) An optimisation of a tree which aims to keep equal numbers of items on each subtree of each node so as to minimise the maximum path from the root to any leaf node. As items are inserted and deleted, the tree is restructured to keep the nodes balanced and the search paths uniform. Such an algorithm is appropriate where the overheads of the reorganisation on update are outweighed by the benefits of faster search. A B-tree is a kind of balanced tree that can have more than two subtrees at each node (i.e. one that is not restricted to being a binary tree).
- ballet dancer — a man or woman who takes part in ballet dancing, usually professionally
- ballet master — a man who teaches and rehearses the dancers in a ballet company
- ballistospore — a spore, esp a fungal spore, that is forcefully ejected from its source
- balneotherapy — the treatment of disease by bathing, esp to improve limb mobility in arthritic and neuromuscular disorders
- baluster stem — a stem of a drinking glass or the like having a gradual swelling near the top or bottom.
- banbury tarts — small baked pastries filled with raisins, currants, etc.
- band spectrum — a spectrum consisting of a number of bands of closely spaced lines that are associated with emission or absorption of radiation by molecules
- band together — If people band together, they meet and act as a group in order to try and achieve something.
- bandicoot rat — any of three burrowing rats of the genera Bandicota and Nesokia, of S and SE Asia: family Muridae
- banister back — a back of a chair or the like, usually having semicircular spindles between the top rail and the cross rail or seat.
- bank transfer — a payment between two bank accounts
- bankrupt worm — a roundworm (genus Trichostrongylus) that is an intestinal parasite of birds and mammals, especially devastating to young livestock.
- barbary coast — coastal region of N Africa, extending from Egypt to the Atlantic, inhabited chiefly by Berbers and once (until early 19th cent.) dominated by pirates
- barber's itch — any of various fungal infections of the bearded portion of the neck and face
- barcoo salute — a movement of the hand to brush flies away from the face
- baritone clef — an F clef locating F below middle C on the third line of the staff.
- barley stripe — a disease of barley, characterized by blighted heads and chlorotic, brown, or frayed stripes on the leaves, caused by a fungus, Helminthosporium gramineum.
- baroclinicity — a common state of fluid stratification in which surfaces of constant pressure and others of constant density are not parallel but intersect.
- baroreceptors — Plural form of baroreceptor.
- barosinusitis — aerosinusitis.
- barrel cactus — any of several large, cylindrical, ribbed, spiny cacti of the genera Echinocactus and Ferocactus.
- barristership — the office of a barrister
- bartholinitis — Inflammation of Bartholin's cyst.
- bartholomew i — (Dimitrios Archontonis) born 1940, Archbishop of Constantinople and Ecumenical Patriarch of the Eastern Orthodox Church since 1991.
- bartlett pear — a large, juicy variety of pear
- barytocalcite — a mineral, double carbonate of calcium and barium, CaCO 3 ⋅BaCO 3 , usually found in veins of lead minerals.
- basement-rock — the undifferentiated assemblage of rock (basement rock) underlying the oldest stratified rocks in any region: usually crystalline, metamorphosed, and mostly, but not necessarily, Precambrian in age.
- basic fortran — (language) A subset of Fortran.
- basket dinner — a group social gathering, as of church members, to which participants contribute casseroles or other dishes to share.
- basket flower — a composite plant, Centaurea americana, of central U.S. to Mexico, having raylike heads of tubular rose-colored flowers, each surrounded by a whorl of bracts making the flower head appear as if it is set in a basket.
- bass clarinet — a clarinet with the lowest range, in the octave below the B-flat clarinet
- bass trombone — the lower-pitched of the two main types of trombone
- bass-baritone — a singer or voice in the bass range with baritone qualities
- bastard amber — a color of gelatin commonly used in stage lighting, similar to light amber but having a pinkish cast.
- bastard eigne — the first-born illegitimate son of parents whose second son was legitimate.
- bastard title — half title (def 1).
- bastard-title — Also called bastard title. the first printed page of certain books, appearing after the end papers and before the title page and containing only the title of the book.
- bat-eared fox — a fox, Vulpes chama, inhabiting dry areas of southern Africa and having large pointed ears, silvery gray coat, and a bushy tail with a black tip.
- batch-process — to perform batch processing on (files)
- bathtub curve — Common term for the curve (resembling an end-to-end section of one of those claw-footed antique bathtubs) that describes the expected failure rate of electronics with time: initially high, dropping to near 0 for most of the system's lifetime, then rising again as it "tires out". See also burn-in period, infant mortality.
- bathurst burr — an Australian plant, Xanthium spinosum, having numerous hooked burrs that became entangled in sheep's wool
- baton twirler — someone who twirls a baton, esp a drum major or majorette
- batrachotoxin — a steroidal alkaloid, C31H42N2O6, found in the skin of certain Neotropical frogs (genus Phyllobates) and used on poison arrows: one of the most powerful natural neurotoxins known
- battered wife — See under battered woman syndrome.
- battering ram — A battering ram is a long heavy piece of wood that is used to knock down the locked doors of buildings.
- battering-ram — an ancient military device with a heavy horizontal ram for battering down walls, gates, etc.
- batting order — the sequence in which hitters will bat in a given game, determined in advance by the team manager.
- battlecruiser — A large warship of a type built in the early 20th century, carrying similar armament to a battleship but faster and more lightly armored.