14-letter words containing a, c, t, u, r
- austro-asiatic — a hypothetical phylum or superfamily of languages consisting of Mon-Khmer and certain other languages of India and South-East Asia. Links with Malayo-Polynesian have also been suggested
- author catalog — a catalog whose entries are listed by author, editor, compiler, translator, or other party considered to have responsibility for the creation or assembly of the work specified.
- autobiographic — marked by or dealing with one's own experiences or life history; of or in the manner of an autobiography: autobiographical material; an autobiographical novel.
- autocollimator — an instrument combining the functions of a telescope and collimator, for detecting and measuring very small deviations in a beam of light.
- autocoprophagy — the consumption of one's own faeces
- autocorrelator — (electronics) A device that modifies a signal with a delayed copy of itself in order to detect any periodic signal hidden in the noise.
- autocovariance — (statistics) The covariance of a signal with another part of the same signal.
- autocratically — In an autocratic manner.
- autodestructed — Simple past tense and past participle of autodestruct.
- automatic door — a self-opening door
- autoreactivity — (immunology) The condition of being autoreactive.
- azimuth circle — a device for measuring azimuths, consisting of a graduated ring equipped with a sighting vane on each side, which fits concentrically over a compass.
- baccalaureates — Plural form of baccalaureate.
- back to nature — If you want to get back to nature, you want to return to a simpler way of living.
- bamboo curtain — (esp in the 1950s and 1960s) the political and military barrier to communications around the People's Republic of China
- barbour jacket — a hard-wearing waterproof waxed jacket
- basic industry — an industry which is highly important in a nation's economy
- basque country — Theregion comprising three provinces in N Spain, on the Bay of Biscay, inhabited by Basques: 2,803 sq mi (7,260 sq km); pop. 2,104,000
- battery backup — A battery backup is a system in some power supplies that switches between a main power source and a battery.
- battle cruiser — A battle cruiser is a large fast warship that is lighter than a battleship and moves more easily.
- beaufort scale — an international scale of wind velocities ranging for practical purposes from 0 (calm) to 12 (hurricane force). In the US an extension of the scale, from 13 to 17 for winds over 64 knots, is used
- beauty culture — the skill or occupation of a beautician
- bermuda cutter — a marconi-rigged cutter.
- beta reduction — [lambda-calculus] The application of a lambda abstraction to an argument expression. A copy of the body of the lambda abstraction is made and occurrences of the bound variable being replaced by the argument. E.g. (\ x . x+1) 4 --> 4+1 Beta reduction is the only kind of reduction in the pure lambda-calculus. The opposite of beta reduction is beta abstraction. These are the two kinds of beta conversion. See also name capture.
- beta structure — a secondary structure occurring in many proteins, consisting of several polypeptide chains running in parallel or alternating directions and joined by intermolecular hydrogen bonds, creating a flexible, strong arrangement.
- bib and tucker — an outfit of clothes (esp in the phrase best bib and tucker)
- binary counter — (electronics, hardware) A digital circuit which has a clock input and a number of count outputs which give the number of clock cycles. The output may change either on rising or falling clock edges. The circuit may also have a reset input which sets all outputs to zero when asserted. The counter may be either a synchronous counter or a ripple counter.
- bioaeronautics — the use of aircraft in the discovery, development, and protection of natural and biological resources
- bird sanctuary — an area of land in which birds are protected and encouraged to breed
- biscuit barrel — an airtight container of circular section equipped with a lid and used for storing biscuits
- bracket fungus — any saprotroph or parasitic fungus of the basidiomycetous family Polyporaceae, growing as a shelflike mass (bracket) from tree trunks and producing spores in vertical tubes in the bracket
- brazil current — a warm current in the Atlantic Ocean flowing SE along the E coast of Brazil.
- bread poultice — a poultice made from breadcrumbs
- breakfast club — a service that provides a breakfast for children who arrive early at school
- broad-spectrum — effective against a wide variety of diseases or microorganisms
- bronchial tube — Your bronchial tubes are the two tubes which connect your windpipe to your lungs.
- bucket brigade — a line of persons passing buckets of water along in trying to put out a fire
- burschenschaft — a students' fraternity, originally one concerned with Christian ideals, patriotism, etc
- bush carpenter — a rough-and-ready unskilled workman
- cable trunking — Cable trunking is an enclosure usually with a rectangular cross section, and with one removable or hinged side, that is used to protect cables and provide space for other electrical equipment.
- call of nature — Some people talk about a call of nature when referring politely to the need to go to the toilet.
- campylotropous — (of an ovule) curved so that the micropyle and funiculus almost touch
- cancer cluster — the occurrence of a higher than expected number of cancer cases in a small, defined geographical area or population.
- cantankerously — In a cantankerous manner.
- capillary tube — a glass tube with a fine bore and thick walls, used in thermometers, etc
- captain crunch — 1. (person) ("Cap'n Crunch") An early 1970s hacker/phreaker/phacker who used a free whistle included with "Cap'n Crunch" breakfast cereal to fake pay phone system tones and make large quantities of free phone calls. Also alludes to "crunch". 2. (After the above) wardialer. 3. Reportedly, a program which crashes a computer by overloading the interrupt stack.
- carbon capture — the capture of atmospheric carbon dioxide, esp as a technique to prevent climate change
- carbon neutral — A carbon neutral lifestyle, company, or activity does not cause an increase in the overall amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
- carbon-neutral — pertaining to or having achieved a state in which the net amount of carbon dioxide or other carbon compounds emitted into the atmosphere is reduced to zero because it is balanced by actions to reduce or offset these emissions: Since the administration installed solar panels, the campus has become carbon neutral; a carbon-neutral brewery.
- card catalogue — a catalogue of books, papers, etc, filed on cards