16-letter words containing a, b, y, i
- bypass operation — an operation involving redirection of blood flow, either to avoid a diseased blood vessel or in order to perform heart surgery
- byzantine church — Orthodox Church (def 1).
- byzantine empire — the continuation of the Roman Empire in the East, esp after the deposition of the last emperor in Rome (476 ad). It was finally extinguished by the fall of Constantinople, its capital, in 1453
- can you beat it? — an expression of utter amazement or surprise
- capacity booking — a time when someone has booked the whole of a venue or the maximum amount of something available
- carboxypeptidase — any of several digestive enzymes that catalyze the removal of an amino acid from the end of a peptide chain having a free carbonyl group.
- celebrity status — the prominence of film star, footballer, musician etc who is constantly photographed and written about in tabloids and magazines
- chiclet keyboard — (hardware, abuse) A keyboard with a small, flat rectangular or lozenge-shaped rubber or plastic keys that look like pieces of Chiclets chewing gum. Used especially to describe the original IBM PCjr keyboard. Vendors unanimously liked these because they were cheap, and a lot of early portable and laptop computers were launched with them. Customers rejected the idea with almost equal unanimity, and chiclets are not often seen on anything larger than a digital watch any more.
- city of aberdeen — a council area in NE Scotland, established in 1996. Pop: 206 600 (2003 est). Area: 186 sq km (72 sq miles)
- clinically obese — overweight to a degree which causes medical complications
- commensurability — The quality of being commensurable or commensurate.
- companionability — The state of being companionable, suitability for companionship.
- constructability — Alternative form of constructibility.
- cray instability — A shortcoming of a program or algorithm that manifests itself only when a large problem is being run on a powerful machine such as a Cray. Generally more subtle than bugs that can be detected in smaller problems running on a workstation or minicomputer.
- cyanogen bromide — a colorless, slightly water-soluble, poisonous, volatile, crystalline solid, BrCN, used chiefly as a fumigant and a pesticide.
- daylight robbery — If someone charges you a great deal of money for something and you think this is unfair or unreasonable, you can refer to this as daylight robbery.
- debating society — a club, e.g. at a school or university, which regularly holds debates
- deoxyhaemoglobin — (biochemistry) The form of haemoglobin that has released its oxygen.
- derbyshire chair — a chair of the mid-17th century, made of oak, usually without arms, and having a back of two carved rails between square uprights.
- diethyl carbinol — a colorless, liquid isomer of amyl alcohol, (CH3CH2)2CHOH, used in drugs and as a solvent
- dimethylcarbinol — isopropyl alcohol.
- discriminability — The condition of being discriminable.
- distributionally — In a distributional manner.
- dublin bay prawn — a large prawn usually used in a dish of scampi
- east gwillimbury — a town in S Ontario, in S Canada.
- eclipsing binary — a variable star whose changes in brightness are caused by periodic eclipses of two stars in a binary system.
- embroidery frame — a frame in the form of a pair of (usually circular) rings, designed to keep the fabric taut while an embroiderer works on it
- erymanthian boar — a wild boar that ravaged the district around Mount Erymanthus: captured by Hercules as his fourth labour
- erythroblastosis — A medical condition in which erythroblasts are abnormally found in the blood.
- family balancing — the choosing of the sex of a future child on the basis of how many children of each sex a family already has
- flabbergastingly — Surprisingly, astonishingly or amazingly.
- flying ambulance — an aircraft used to take sick or injured people to hospital
- galvanic battery — battery (def 1a).
- generalisability — Non-Oxford British standard spelling of generalizability.
- generalizability — The quality of being generalizable.
- global community — the people or nations of the world, considered as being closely connected by modern telecommunications and as being economically, socially, and politically interdependent
- harleian library — a large library of manuscripts collected by the British statesman Robert Harley and his son and now housed in the British Museum.
- hayes-compatible — (communications) A description of a modem which understands the same set of commands as one made by Hayes.
- himalayan balsam — a tall flowering plant, Impatiens glandulifera, brought from Asia to Europe as a garden plant but now growing wild in Europe, especially on river banks. It is considered invasive and environmentally damaging.
- humanly possible — feasible, practical
- hyaloid membrane — the delicate, pellucid, and nearly structureless membrane enclosing the vitreous humor of the eye.
- hybrid perpetual — a type of cultivated rose bred from varieties having vigorous growth and more or less recurrent bloom.
- hydration number — the number of molecules of water with which an ion can combine in an aqueous solution of given concentration.
- hydrobromic acid — a colorless or faintly yellow corrosive liquid, HBr, an aqueous solution of hydrogen bromide.
- hypervariability — apt or liable to vary or change; changeable: variable weather; variable moods.
- imaginary number — Also called imaginary, pure imaginary number. a complex number having its real part equal to zero.
- imperfectability — The quality of not being perfectable; of being forever imperfect.
- imperturbability — incapable of being upset or agitated; not easily excited; calm: imperturbable composure.
- impracticability — The quality or condition of being impracticable.
- in a brown study — in a reverie or daydream