13-letter words containing a, b, s
- barristership — the office of a barrister
- 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
- base exchange — a nonprofit general store at a military base, for the sale of merchandise for personal use, refreshments, etc.
- base hospital — a hospital serving a large rural area
- base on balls — walk
- basel accords — the three sets of rules, Basel I, Basel II, and Basel III, for regulating the banking industry, drawn up by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision
- baseline cost — the projected cost for an undertaking at the time it is budgeted
- basement flat — a flat below the ground floor of a building
- 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 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
- basic fortran — (language) A subset of Fortran.
- basic plumage — the plumage assumed by an adult bird at its complete, usually annual, molt.
- basic process — Military. basic training. a soldier or airman receiving basic training.
- basidiomycete — any fungus of the phylum Basidiomycota (formerly class Basidiomycetes), in which the spores are produced in basidia. The group includes boletes, puffballs, smuts, and rusts
- basidiospores — Plural form of basidiospore.
- basket clause — an all-inclusive or comprehensive clause in a contract
- 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.
- basking shark — a very large plankton-eating shark, Cetorhinus maximus, often floating at the sea surface: family Cetorhinidae
- bass clarinet — a clarinet with the lowest range, in the octave below the B-flat clarinet
- bass response — the response of an audio reproduction system or component to low frequencies
- 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
- bassenthwaite — a lake in NW England, in Cumbria near Keswick. Length: 6 km (4 miles)
- basso rilievo — bas-relief
- basso-relievo — bas-relief
- 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.
- 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)
- batch-process — to perform batch processing on (files)
- bathurst burr — an Australian plant, Xanthium spinosum, having numerous hooked burrs that became entangled in sheep's wool
- 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.
- battlegrounds — Plural form of battleground.
- bay of biscay — a large bay of the Atlantic Ocean between W France and N Spain: notorious for storms
- bay of gdańsk — a wide inlet of the Baltic Sea on the N coast of Poland
- bay of naples — an inlet of the Tyrrhenian Sea in the SW coast of Italy
- be nuts about — to be greatly in love with
- be upstanding — (in a court of law) a direction to all persons present to rise to their feet before the judge enters or leaves the court
- beacon school — a notably successful school whose methods and practices are brought to the attention of the education service as a whole in order that they may be adopted by other schools
- beacon status — a ranking awarded by the government to an organization, rendering it eligible for extra funding, and aimed at encouraging organizations to share good practice with each other
- beaked salmon — sandfish (def 2).
- beaked-salmon — sandfish (def 2).
- beam splitter — a system that divides a beam of light, electrons, etc, into two or more paths
- bear's-breech — a widely cultivated S European acanthus plant, Acanthus mollis, having whitish purple-veined flowers
- bearing sword — a large sword carried for its owner by a squire or servant because of its size.
- beast of prey — any animal that hunts other animals for food
- beat sb to it — If you intend to do something but someone beats you to it, they do it before you do.