15-letter words containing a, i, m
- baggage reclaim — the process of passengers' getting back the baggage that they have checked in for a flight
- bahasa malaysia — the dialect of Malay used as the official language of Malaysia.
- ball ammunition — live small-arms ammunition
- ballet mistress — a woman who teaches and rehearses the dancers in a ballet company
- bangtail muster — a roundup of cattle to be counted, each one having the hairs on its tail docked as it is counted
- baptism of fire — If someone who has just begun a new job has a baptism of fire, they immediately have to cope with very many severe difficulties and obstacles.
- bar examination — a written examination to determine if one is qualified to practice law in a particular jurisdiction.
- barberry family — the plant family Berberidaceae, characterized by shrubs and herbaceous plants having very varied leaves and flowers and fruit in the form of a berry or capsule, and including the barberry, May apple, and Oregon grape.
- 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
- barry mountains — a mountain range in SE Australia, in E Victoria: part of the Australian Alps
- basic statement — protocol (def 6).
- basidiomycetous — belonging or pertaining to the basidiomycetes.
- basse-normandie — a region of NW France, on the English Channel: consists of the Cherbourg peninsula in the west rising to the Normandy hills in the east; mainly agricultural
- bathing costume — A bathing costume is a piece of clothing that is worn for swimming, especially by women and girls.
- bathing machine — a small hut, on wheels so that it could be pulled to the sea, used in the 18th and 19th centuries for bathers to change their clothes
- bathing-machine — a small bathhouse on wheels formerly used as a dressing room and in which bathers could also be transported from the beach to the water.
- bathymetrically — In a bathymetric way.
- battery farming — the activity of using batteries for raising poultry
- bear animalcule — tardigrade (def 3).
- bear comparison — to be sufficiently similar in class or range to be compared with (something else), esp favourably
- bedtime reading — a book, magazine etc read at bedtime
- benefit payment — a payment of money by the government to people who are ill, unemployed, poor or who have children
- beside the mark — not striking the point aimed at
- 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.
- billing machine — a business machine used to itemize and total customer accounts, produce bills, post account records, etc.
- binomial series — an infinite series obtained by expanding a binomial raised to a power that is not a positive integer.
- bioaccumulation — the process in which industrial waste, toxic chemicals, etc. gradually accumulate in living tissue
- biomathematical — relating to biomathematics
- biomechanically — from a biomechanical point of view
- bit-mapped font — a computer font whose characters are held in memory as series of dots.
- bitmapped image — a computer image that is held in memory as a series of colored dots in a grid, each dot represented by one or more bits.
- bituminous coal — a soft black coal, rich in volatile hydrocarbons, that burns with a smoky yellow flame. Fixed carbon content: 46–86 per cent; calorific value: 1.93 × 107 – 3.63 × 107 J/kg
- black guillemot — a common guillemot, Cepphus grylle: its summer plumage is black with white wing patches and its winter plumage white with greyish wings
- black mountains — a mountain range running from N Monmouthshire and SE Powys (Wales) to SW Herefordshire (England). Highest peak: Waun Fach, 811 m (2660 ft)
- bladder campion — a European caryophyllaceous plant, Silene vulgaris, having white flowers with an inflated calyx
- blenheim orange — a type of apple tree bearing gold-coloured apples
- blenheim palace — a palace in Woodstock in Oxfordshire: built (1705–22) by Sir John Vanbrugh for the 1st Duke of Marlborough as a reward from the nation for his victory at Blenheim; gardens laid out by Henry Wise and Capability Brown; birthplace of Sir Winston Churchill (1874)
- blindman's buff — a game in which a blindfolded player has to catch and identify another player
- body mass index — A person's body mass index is a measurement that represents the relationship between their weight and their height.
- bohemia-moravia — a former German protectorate including Bohemia and Moravia, 1939–45.
- bohemian forest — a mountain range between the SW Czech Republic and SE Germany. Highest peak: Arber, 1457 m (4780 ft)
- bookmaking firm — an organization that accepts bets from gamblers and pays out winnings
- boston marriage — (especially in 19th-century New England) an intimate friendship between two women often maintaining a household together.
- bouillotte lamp — a table lamp of the 18th century, having two or three adjustable candle brackets and a common shade sliding on a central shaft.
- bowel complaint — bowel disease or condition