14-letter words containing a, d, t, o
- autodestructed — Simple past tense and past participle of autodestruct.
- automatic door — a self-opening door
- autopilot code — (jargon, humour) Code that was written by a programmer on "auto-pilot" who wasn't really thinking about what they were doing.
- autopolyploidy — having more than two haploid sets of chromosomes that are derived from the same ancestral species.
- autoradiograph — a photograph showing the distribution of a radioactive substance in a specimen. The photographic plate is exposed by radiation from the specimen
- autoresponders — Plural form of autoresponder.
- autotetraploid — an individual or strain whose chromosome complement consists of four copies of a single genome due to doubling of an ancestral chromosome complement
- aviation badge — wings.
- aviation cadet — one who trains to become an officer in an air force.
- aviation-badge — Also called aviation badge. Military Informal. a badge bearing the image of a spread pair of bird's wings with a distinctive center design, awarded to an aircrewman on completion of certain requirements.
- axis-ordinates — y-axis (def 1).
- azidothymidine — an antiretroviral drug used to treat HIV/AIDS
- back and forth — If someone moves back and forth, they repeatedly move in one direction and then in the opposite direction.
- back-and-forth — backward and forward; side to side; to and fro: a back-and-forth shuttling of buses to the stadium; the back-and-forth movement of a clock's pendulum.
- backside-front — backend-to.
- ball indicator — a flight instrument that measures the angle of roll about an aircraft's horizontal axis, thereby indicating whether or not the aircraft is skidding or slipping.
- barbados earth — a diatomaceous marl found in Barbados
- barrier method — Barrier methods of contraception involve the use of condoms, diaphragms, or other devices that physically prevent the sperm from reaching the egg.
- basidiomycetes — Mycology. any of a group of fungi constituting the phylum Basidiomycota of the kingdom Fungi (or, in older classification schemes, the class Basidiomycetes of the kingdom Plantae), characterized by bearing the spores on a basidium, including the smuts, rust, mushrooms, and puffballs.
- basket-of-gold — a yellow-flowered perennial plant (Alyssum saxatile, now more properly Aurinia saxatilis) of the crucifer family, often used in rock gardens
- bastard indigo — a bushy shrub, Amorpha fruticosa, of the legume family, native to North America, having elongated clusters of dull purplish or bluish flowers.
- bastardisation — Alternative form of bastardization.
- bastardization — the act of bastardizing
- battered woman — See under battered woman syndrome.
- battered-women — the array of physical and psychological injuries exhibited by women (battered women or battered wives) who have been beaten repeatedly or otherwise abused by their partners or spouses.
- beard-stroking — deep thought
- bermuda shorts — close-fitting shorts that come down to the knees
- 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-endorphin — a potent endorphin released by the anterior pituitary gland in response to pain, trauma, exercise, or other forms of stress.
- beta-oxidation — a process by which fatty acids are degraded, involving oxidation of the beta carbons and removal of successive two-carbon fragments from the fatty acid.
- beyond a doubt — to be uncertain about; consider questionable or unlikely; hesitate to believe.
- biodegradation — to decay and become absorbed by the environment: toys that will biodegrade when they're discarded.
- bioremediation — the use of plants to extract heavy metals from contaminated soils and water
- blood and guts — dealing with or depicting war or violence, especially in a lurid manner: a blood-and-guts movie.
- blood platelet — any of the minute, disklike, colorless elements of the blood that are essential for normal clotting
- blood relation — A blood relation or blood relative is someone who is related to you by birth rather than by marriage.
- blood-and-guts — dealing with or depicting war or violence, especially in a lurid manner: a blood-and-guts movie.
- board of trade — (in the United Kingdom) a ministry within the Department of Trade: responsible for the supervision of commerce and the promotion of export trade
- boarding party — group of officers or sailors who board a ship
- boatswain bird — tropic bird.
- body beautiful — a beautiful body
- body corporate — a group of persons incorporated to carry out a specific enterprise
- body snatching — the act or practice of robbing a grave to obtain a cadaver for dissection.
- bored to death — very weary and lack stimulation
- born yesterday — brought forth by birth.
- botanic garden — a place in which plants are grown, studied, and exhibited
- boundary-stone — a stone marking a boundary, sometimes giving information such as the initials of the local authority in whose jurisdiction the boundary is
- bread poultice — a poultice made from breadcrumbs
- break the mold — If you say that someone breaks the mold, you mean that they do completely different things from what has been done before or from what is usually done.
- breakfast food — any prepared cereal for breakfast