15-letter words containing a, e, r, i, u
- ascribed status — the social position assigned to a person on the basis of kinship, ethnic group, sex, etc.
- at your service — You can use 'at your service' after your name as a formal way of introducing yourself to someone and saying that you are willing to help them in any way you can.
- atrabiliousness — The state or quality of being characterized by melancholy or glumness.
- attitude survey — a survey of the opinions held by a particular group of people
- audience rating — a figure based on statistical sampling indicating what proportion of the total listening and viewing audience tune in to a specific programme or network
- audio frequency — a frequency in the range 20 hertz to 20 000 hertz. A sound wave of this frequency would be audible to the human ear
- audio recording — an electronic recording of sound
- auditor general — (in Canada) a federal official responsible for auditing government departments and making an annual report
- auf wiedersehen — goodbye, until we see each other again
- augusta emerita — a market town in W Spain, in Extremadura, on the Guadiana River: founded in 25 bc; became the capital of Lusitania and one of the chief cities of Iberia. Pop: 52 110 (2003 est)
- aurora borealis — the aurora seen around the North Pole
- australian pine — casuarina
- authoritatively — having due authority; having the sanction or weight of authority: an authoritative opinion.
- autobiographers — Plural form of autobiographer.
- autobiographies — Plural form of autobiography.
- autocorrelation — the condition occurring when successive items in a series are correlated so that their covariance is not zero and they are not independent
- autocorrelative — Relating to autocorrelation.
- autodestructive — likely to cause one's own destruction
- automatic drive — an automotive transmission requiring either very little or no manual shifting of gears.
- automatic rifle — a type of light machine gun capable of firing automatically or in single shots.
- autotetraploidy — the generation of the tetraploid state, created by the fusing of two nuclei from the same species
- bacteriophagous — Pertaining to the predation and consumption of bacterium.
- ballpark figure — approximate number
- banana republic — Small, poor countries that are politically unstable are sometimes referred to as banana republics.
- bangtail muster — a roundup of cattle to be counted, each one having the hairs on its tail docked as it is counted
- bargain counter — a store counter on which goods are displayed for sale at reduced prices
- barium chloride — a poisonous compound, BaCl2, consisting of flat white crystals that are soluble in water: it is used to treat water, metals, leather, etc.
- barium chromate — a yellow, crystalline compound, BaCrO 4 , used as a pigment (barium yellow)
- barium peroxide — a gray-white powder, BaO2, used as a bleach and in making hydrogen peroxide
- barium stearate — a white, crystalline, water-insoluble solid, Ba(C 18 H 35 O 2) 2 , used chiefly as a waterproofing agent and as a lubricant.
- barium sulphate — a white insoluble fine dense powder, used as a pigment, as a filler for paper, rubber, etc, and in barium meals. Formula: BaSO4
- barium titanate — a crystalline ceramic used in capacitors and piezoelectric devices. Formula: BaTiO3
- basic autocoder — Early system on IBM 7070. Listed in CACM 2(5):16 (May 1959).
- bear animalcule — tardigrade (def 3).
- béarnaise sauce — a creamy sauce, esp. for meat or fish, made of butter and egg yolks and flavored with wine, vinegar, shallots, and herbs
- bernoulli trial — one of a sequence of independent experiments each of which has the same probability of success, such as successive throws of a die, the outcome of which is described by a binomial distribution
- biblia pauperum — any of the picture books illustrating Biblical events and usually containing a short text, used chiefly in the Middle Ages for purposes of religious instruction.
- brachial plexus — a network of nerves in the armpits and neck, innervating the shoulders, arms, and hands.
- branching rules — rules that are used to break down a complex problem into several smaller problems
- branchiostegous — branchiostegal.
- brazilian plume — a tropical American plant, Justicia carnea, of the acanthus family, having hairy, prominently veined leaves and a short, dense cluster of purple or pink flowers, grown in greenhouses or outdoors in warm regions.
- breaking plough — a plough with a long shallow mouldboard for turning virgin land or sod land
- bronchial tubes — the bronchi or their smaller divisions
- brush discharge — a slightly luminous electrical discharge between points of high charge density when the charge density is insufficient to cause a spark or around sharp points on a highly charged conductor because of ionization of air molecules in their vicinity
- buckinghamshire — a county in SE central England, containing the Vale of Aylesbury and parts of the Chiltern Hills: the geographic and ceremonial county includes Milton Keynes, which became an independent unitary authority in 1997. Administrative centre: Aylesbury. Pop (excluding Milton Keynes): 478 000 (2003 est). Area (excluding Milton Keynes): 1568 sq km (605 sq miles)
- buffalo soldier — (formerly, especially among American Indians) a black soldier.
- bug fix release — (programming) A release which introduces no new features, but which merely aims to fix bugs in previous releases. All too commonly new bugs are introduced at the same time.
- building trades — the trades and professions concerned with the creation and finishing of buildings, such as carpenters, plasterers, masons, electricians, etc.
- bulimia nervosa — a disorder characterized by compulsive overeating followed by vomiting: sometimes associated with anxiety about gaining weight
- bureau of mines — a division of the Department of the Interior, created in 1910, that studies the nation's mineral resources and inspects mines.