12-letter words containing a, b, s, i, t
- bastard file — a file of the commercial grade of coarseness between coarse and second-cut.
- bastard wing — a tuft of feathers attached to the first digit of a bird, distinct from the wing feathers attached to the other digits and the ulna
- bastardizing — Present participle of bastardize.
- bastille day — (in France) an annual holiday on July 14, commemorating the fall of the Bastille
- bastinadoing — Present participle of bastinado.
- bathing suit — A bathing suit is a piece of clothing which people wear when they go swimming.
- bathophilous — (of an organism) living in very deep water
- battlefields — Plural form of battlefield.
- beamsplitter — Alternative spelling of beam splitter.
- bear witness — to give written or oral testimony
- beautifulest — (dated) Most beautiful; more beautiful than anyone or anything else.
- beauty strip — a narrow forest corridor left uncut alongside a road or body of water.
- beggar-ticks — any of various plants, such as the bur marigold and tick trefoil, having fruits or seeds that cling to clothing, fur, etc
- below stairs — People sometimes use below stairs to refer to the servants in a rich household and the things that are connected with them.
- beta orionis — Rigel
- beta testing — (programming) Evaluation of a pre-release (potentially unreliable) version of a piece of software (or possibly hardware) by making it available to selected users ("beta testers") before it goes on general distribution. Beta testign aims to discover bugs that only occur in certain environments or under certain patterns of use, while reducing the volume of feedback to a manageable level. The testers benefit by having earlier access to new products, features and fixes. Beta testing may be preceded by "alpha testing", performed in-house by a handful of users (e.g. other developers or friends), who can be expected to give rapid, high quality feedback on design and usability. Once the product is considered to be usable for its intended purpose it then moves on to "beta testing" by a larger, but typically still limited, number of ordinary users, who may include external customers. Some companies such as Google or Degree Jungle stretch the definition, claiming their products are "in beta" for many months by millions of users. The term derives from early 1960s terminology for product cycle checkpoints, first used at IBM but later standard throughout the industry. "Alpha test" was the unit test, module test or component test phase; "Beta Test" was initial system test. These themselves came from earlier A- and B-tests for hardware. The A-test was a feasibility and manufacturability evaluation done before any commitment to design and development. The B-test was a demonstration that the engineering model functioned as specified. The C-test (corresponding to today's beta) was the B-test performed on early samples of the production design.
- beta version — beta testing
- beth midrash — a place where Jews gather to study the Talmud and other religious writings; a small synagogue.
- beth shammai — the school of Jewish legal thought and hermeneutics founded in Jerusalem in the 1st century b.c. by the Jewish teacher Shammai and characterized by an austere or rigid interpretation of Jewish law and tradition.
- bidialectism — proficient in or using two dialects of the same language.
- bien pensant — a right-thinking person
- bilateralism — the practice of being bilateral
- billingsgate — the largest fish market in London, on the N bank of the River Thames; moved to new site at Canary Wharf in 1982 and the former building converted into offices
- bioacoustics — the study of animals' use of sound
- bioastronomy — the branch of biology which deals with the study or the discovery of life forms on other planets or in space
- biomagnetics — the study of magnetic fields as a form of therapy
- biomagnetism — animal magnetism.
- biosatellite — an artificial satellite for carrying living organisms
- biscuit ware — unglazed earthenware
- biting stage — the second part of the oral phase of psychosexual development, approximately 8 to18 months of age, during which a child has the urge to bite or chew objects.
- bitter aloes — a bitter purgative drug made from the leaves of several species of aloe
- bitter lakes — two lakes, the Great Bitter Lake and Little Bitter Lake in NE Egypt: part of the Suez Canal
- blandishment — the act of blandishing; cajolery
- blastocoelic — of or relating to the blastocoel
- blastulation — the process of blastula formation
- blatherskite — a talkative silly person
- blazing star — a North American liliaceous plant, Chamaelirium luteum, with a long spike of small white flowers
- blister pack — a type of packet in which small items are displayed and sold, consisting of a transparent dome of plastic or similar material mounted on a firm backing such as cardboard
- bloodstained — Someone or something that is bloodstained is covered with blood.
- blue catfish — a large freshwater catfish, Ictalurus furcatus, that is a popular food fish in the states of the Mississippi River valley.
- blues guitar — blues guitar music
- boatsmanship — seamanship as applied to boats, especially rowboats and motorboats.
- borosilicate — a salt of boric and silicic acids
- brain teaser — A brain teaser is a question, problem, or puzzle that is difficult to answer or solve, but is not serious or important.
- brain-teaser — a puzzle or problem whose solution requires great ingenuity.
- brains trust — a group of knowledgeable people who discuss topics in public or on radio or television
- brainstormer — a person who brainstorms
- brake assist — a part of a vehicle's braking system that automatically boosts braking pressure in an emergency situation
- breast drill — a geared drill that can be braced against the chest for additional leverage.
- bridal suite — a room or set of rooms in a hotel for newly married couples