14-letter words containing a, c, u, s
- atlas autocode — (language) The Autocode for the Ferranti Atlas, which may have been the first commercial computer with hardware-paged virtual memory. Whereas other autocodes were basically assembly languages, Atlas Autocode was high-level and block-structured, resembling a cross between Fortran and ALGOL 60. It had call-by value, loops, declarations, complex numbers, pointers, heap and stack storage generators, dynamic arrays, and extensible syntax.
- audience share — the percentage of households with television sets in use or tuned to a particular station during a specific period of time.
- audio-cassette — a cassette of tape on which sound only is recorded
- audiocassettes — Plural form of audiocassette.
- auspiciousness — The state or quality of being auspicious or successful.
- 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
- autoconfiscate — (software, jargon) A term coined by Noah Friedman meaning to set up or modify a source-code distribution so that it configures and builds using the GNU project's autoconf/automake/libtools suite.
- autodesk, inc. — (company) The distributors of the AutoCAD CAD package. Address: Sausalito, CA, USA.
- autodestructed — Simple past tense and past participle of autodestruct.
- avariciousness — The state or quality of being avaricious.
- average clause — a clause in an insurance policy that distributes the insurance among several items, usually in proportion to their value
- baccalaureates — Plural form of baccalaureate.
- ball of muscle — a very strong, fit, or forceful person
- balsaminaceous — of, relating to, or belonging to the Balsaminaceae, a family of flowering plants, including balsam and touch-me-not, that have irregular flowers and explosive capsules
- barbecue sauce — a highly seasoned sauce used in barbecuing
- barrack square — an open area near a military barracks where drills are performed
- bascule bridge — a kind of drawbridge counterweighted so that it can be raised and lowered easily
- bascule-bridge — a device operating like a balance or seesaw, especially an arrangement of a movable bridge (bascule bridge) by which the rising floor or section is counterbalanced by a weight.
- base community — (especially in South America) a group of people taking part in religious devotions and Bible study, who seek to apply this in their socioeconomic and political situation.
- 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
- basso continuo — continuo.
- battle cruiser — A battle cruiser is a large fast warship that is lighter than a battleship and moves more easily.
- beaten biscuit — a hard, unleavened biscuit, made to rise by pounding and folding the dough.
- 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 contest — A beauty contest is a competition in which young women are judged to decide which one is the most beautiful.
- béchamel sauce — a thick white sauce flavoured with onion and seasonings
- bechamel-sauce — a white sauce, sometimes seasoned with onion and nutmeg.
- becquerel rays — rays given off by radioactive substances
- berberidaceous — of, relating to, or belonging to the Berberidaceae, a mainly N temperate family of flowering plants (mostly shrubs), including barberry and barrenwort
- 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.
- bezier surface — (graphics) A surface defined by mathematical formulae, used in computer graphics. A surface P(u, v), where u and v vary orthogonally from 0 to 1 from one edge of the surface to the other, is defined by a set of (n+1)*(m+1) "control points" (X(i, j), Y(i, j), Z(i, j)) for i = 0 to n, j = 0 to m.
- bicuspid valve — mitral valve
- bilious attack — a group of symptoms consisting of headache, abdominal pain, and constipation
- 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
- black selenium — an allotropic form of selenium occurring as a black, amorphous, water-insoluble, light-sensitive powder: used chiefly in photoelectric cells.
- black squirrel — a fox squirrel or gray squirrel in that color phase in which the fur is black.
- bounce message — A notification message returned to the sender by a site unable to relay e-mail to the intended recipient or the next link in a bang path. Reasons might include a nonexistent or misspelled user name or a down relay site. Bounce messages can themselves fail, with occasionally ugly results; see sorcerer's apprentice mode and software laser. The terms "bounce mail" and "barfmail" are also common.
- 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
- brass knuckles — linked metal rings or a metal bar with holes for the fingers, worn for rough fighting
- braunschweiger — a smoked liver sausage, named after the city of Braunschweig
- 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
- burschenschaft — a students' fraternity, originally one concerned with Christian ideals, patriotism, etc
- bush carpenter — a rough-and-ready unskilled workman
- business class — Business class seating on an aeroplane costs less than first class but more than economy class.
- cadaverousness — of or like a corpse.
- cahokia mounds — the largest group of prehistoric Indian earthworks in the US, located northeast of East St Louis