13-letter words containing a, c, e, s
- base exchange — a nonprofit general store at a military base, for the sale of merchandise for personal use, refreshments, etc.
- 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-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 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
- basket clause — an all-inclusive or comprehensive clause in a contract
- bass clarinet — a clarinet with the lowest range, in the octave below the B-flat clarinet
- batch-process — to perform batch processing on (files)
- 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.
- 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
- bear's-breech — a widely cultivated S European acanthus plant, Acanthus mollis, having whitish purple-veined flowers
- beggar's-lice — any of several plants, esp the stickseed, having small prickly fruits that adhere to clothing, fur, etc
- behavioristic — the theory or doctrine that human or animal psychology can be accurately studied only through the examination and analysis of objectively observable and quantifiable behavioral events, in contrast with subjective mental states.
- bell purchase — a tackle consisting of two standing single blocks, two running single blocks, a fall, and a runner, so arranged that it gives a mechanical advantage of six, neglecting friction.
- beneficiary's — a person or group that receives benefits, profits, or advantages.
- berchtesgaden — a town in Germany, in SE Bavaria: site of the fortified mountain retreat of Adolf Hitler. Pop: 7667 (2003 est)
- best practice — Best practice is the way of running a business or providing a service that is recognized as correct or most effective.
- bewick's swan — a white Old World swan, Cygnus bewickii, having a black bill with a small yellow base
- bicentennials — pertaining to or in honor of a 200th anniversary: bicentennial celebration; a bicentennial exposition.
- bignoniaceous — of, relating to, or belonging to the Bignoniaceae, a chiefly tropical family of trees, shrubs, and lianas, including jacaranda, bignonia, and catalpa
- bimetallistic — relating to bimetallism
- binary search — (algorithm) A search algorithm which repeatedly divides an ordered search space in half according to how the required (key) value compares with the middle element. The following pseudo-C routine performs a binary search return the index of the element of vector "thing[first..last]" equal to "target": if (target < thing[first] || target > thing[last]) return NOT_FOUND; while (first < last) { mid = (first+last)/2; /* truncate to integer */ if (target == thing[mid]) return mid; if (target < thing[mid]) last = mid-1; else first = mid+1; } if (target == thing[last]) return last; return NOT_FOUND; (2003-01-14)
- biosystematic — relating to biosystematics
- biscuit bread — biscuits or a biscuit: I like biscuit bread more than corn bread for supper.
- bisectionally — from a bisectional point of view
- black disease — an infectious necrotic hepatitis in sheep and occasionally cattle caused by toxins produced by infection with species of Clostridial. Secondary to liver fluke infestation, the disease is characterized by sudden death. So-called because of the black discolouration of subcutaneous tissues due to congestion and haemorrhage seen at post-mortem
- black english — the group of related dialects of American English spoken variously by many black people in the U.S.
- black measles — a severe form of measles characterized by dark eruptions caused by bleeding under the skin
- black section — (in Britain in the 1980s) an unofficial group within the Labour Party in any constituency that represented the interests of local Black people
- black skimmer — a black and white New World skimmer, Rynchops nigra, having a bill with a reddish-orange base.
- black studies — a program of studies in black history and culture offered by a school or college, often including Afro-American history and black literature.
- black-a-vised — having a dark complexion.
- blaise pascal — Blaise [bleyz;; French blez] /bleɪz;; French blɛz/ (Show IPA), 1623–62, French philosopher and mathematician.
- blanchisseuse — a washer-woman
- blanket chest — a chest, with or without drawers, having a rectangular space under a lifting lid or top, used for storing blankets, bedding, or clothing.
- blasco ibanez — Vicente (biˈθente). 1867–1928, Spanish novelist, whose books include Blood and Sand (1909) and The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1916)
- blast furnace — A blast furnace is a large structure in which iron ore is heated under pressure so that it melts and the pure iron metal separates out and can be collected.
- block release — the release of industrial trainees from work for study at a college for several weeks
- bloody caesar — a drink consisting of vodka, juice made from clams and tomatoes, and usually Worcester sauce and hot pepper sauce
- blue copperas — a salt, copper sulfate, CuSO 4 ⋅5H 2 O, occurring naturally as large transparent, deep-blue triclinic crystals, appearing in its anhydrous state as a white powder: used chiefly as a mordant, insecticide, fungicide, and in engraving.
- body snatcher — (formerly) a person who robbed graves and sold the corpses for dissection
- bois de vache — dried buffalo dung, used as fuel by Canadian and U.S. fur trappers in the 18th and 19th centuries.
- booster cable — either of a pair of electric cables having clamps at each end and used for starting the engine of a vehicle whose battery is dead.
- boraginaceous — of, relating to, or belonging to the Boraginaceae, a family of temperate and tropical typically hairy-leaved flowering plants that includes forget-me-not, lungwort, borage, comfrey, and heliotrope
- bounced flash — a flash bounced off a reflective surface, as a ceiling or wall, to illuminate a subject indirectly.
- bouncy castle — A bouncy castle is a large object filled with air, often in the shape of a castle, which children play on at a fairground or other outdoor event.