19-letter words containing a, b
- breathing apparatus — an apparatus, usually consisting of tanks of air or oxygen and a mouthpiece, that enables the wearer to breath in difficult conditions such as a smoke-filled building
- briggsian logarithm — common logarithm.
- british east africa — the former British possessions of Uganda, Kenya, Tanganyika, and Zanzibar, before their independence in the 1960s
- british west africa — the former British possessions of Nigeria, The Gambia, Sierra Leone, and the Gold Coast, and the former trust territories of Togoland and Cameroons
- brown paper bag bug — (programming) A programming bug that is so stupid that it makes the programmer want to put a brown paper bag over his head.
- brush-tailed possum — any of several widely-distributed Australian possums of the genus Trichosurus
- bug tracking system — (programming) (BTS) A system for receiving and filing bugs reported against a software project, and tracking those bugs until they are fixed. Most major software projects have their own BTS, the source code of which is often available for use by other projects. Well known BTSs include GNATS, Bugzilla, and Debbugs.
- building contractor — an individual or company that contracts for the construction of houses, etc
- buildings insurance — insurance which covers buildings
- bulbourethral gland — Cowper's gland
- business accounting — the keeping of detailed accounts relating to a business or businesses
- buster brown collar — a medium-sized, starched collar with rounded edges, lying flat on the shoulders, worn by women and girls.
- butabarbital sodium — a barbiturate, C 10 H 15 N 2 NaO 3 , used as a sedative and hypnotic.
- buy a pig in a poke — to buy, get, or agree to something without sight or knowledge of it in advance
- by leaps and bounds — with unexpectedly rapid progess
- by one's bootstraps — by one's own efforts; unaided
- cable-stayed bridge — a type of suspension bridge in which the supporting cables are connected directly to the bridge deck without the use of suspenders
- california bluebell — either of two plants, Phacelia campanularia or P. minor, of southern California, having ovate leaves and bell-shaped blue or purple flowers.
- california job case — a job case having sufficient spaces to contain both uppercase and lowercase letters and 37 additional characters of foundry type. Compare case2 (def 8).
- canterbury pilgrims — the pilgrims whose stories are told in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales
- captain abstraction — The champion of the principles of abstraction and modularity, who protects unwary students on MIT's course 6.001 from the nefarious designs of Sergeant Spaghetticode and his vile concrete programming practices. See also spaghetti code.
- carbon dioxide snow — solid carbon dioxide, used as a refrigerant
- carbon steel piping — Carbon steel piping is pipes made of steel with carbon as the main alloying component, used for transporting fluids.
- cardbox for windows — (database) A database handling program, especially useful for scholars and librarians.
- caroline of ansbach — 1683–1737, wife of George II of Great Britain
- catch sb in the act — If you catch someone in the act, you discover them doing something wrong or committing a crime.
- cerebellar syndrome — a disease of the cerebellum characterized by unsteady movements and mispronunciation of words
- cerebral hemisphere — either half of the cerebrum
- cerebral hemorrhage — hemorrhage from a blood vessel into the cerebrum, often followed by neurologic damage; a type of stroke.
- cerebral thrombosis — formation of a clot or other blockage in one of the blood vessels of the brain, often followed by neurologic damage; a type of stroke.
- cerebrospinal fluid — the clear colourless fluid in the spaces inside and around the spinal cord and brain
- chamber of commerce — A chamber of commerce is an organization of businessmen that promotes local commercial interests.
- chamber of deputies — the lower house of the legislature of certain countries, as Italy.
- chargeable transfer — a transfer of value made as a gift during a person's lifetime that is not covered by a specific exemption and therefore gives rise to liability under inheritance tax
- chartered librarian — (in Britain) a librarian who has obtained a qualification from the Library Association in addition to a degree or diploma in librarianship
- checks and balances — competition and mutual restraint among the various branches of government
- chlorobromide paper — a relatively fast printing paper coated with an emulsion of silver chloride and silver bromide.
- chlorofluorocarbons — Plural form of chlorofluorocarbon.
- chromoblastomycosis — Long-term fungal infection of the skin and subcutaneous tissue.
- circulating library — a small library circulated in turn to a group of schools or other institutions
- cobalt violet light — a pigment used in painting consisting mainly of arsenate of cobalt, characterized chiefly by its violet color, permanence, and poisonous properties.
- cobaltous hydroxide — a rose-red, amorphous, water-insoluble powder, Co 2 O 3 ⋅3H 2 O, used chiefly in the preparation of cobalt salts and in the manufacture of paint and varnish driers.
- cock and bull story — an absurd, improbable story presented as the truth: Don't ask him about his ancestry unless you want to hear a cock-and-bull story.
- cock-and-bull story — If you describe something that someone tells you as a cock-and-bull story, you mean that you do not believe it is true.
- collective behavior — the spontaneous, unstructured, and temporary behavior of a group of people in response to the same event, situation, etc.
- combination therapy — a therapy that combines two or more drugs, or two or more treatments
- connecticut warbler — a North American wood warbler, Oporornis agilis, olive-green above with a gray head and throat and yellow below.
- contagious abortion — brucellosis of domestic cattle, an infectious disease characterized by spontaneous abortion and caused by the bacterium Brucella abortus; Bang's disease.
- contributing factor — something that is partly responsible for a development or phenomenon
- convergent boundary — a major geologic discontinuity or suture marking the juncture of lithospheric plates that have been joined by plate tectonics.