13-letter words containing a, l, n, c
- back and fill — to manoeuvre the sails by alternately filling and emptying them of wind to navigate in a narrow place
- back clipping — a word formed by omitting the last part of the form from which it is derived.
- back-end load — the final charges of commission and expenses made by an investment trust, insurance policy, etc, when the investor is paid out
- back-slapping — Back-slapping is noisy, cheerful behaviour which people use in order to show affection or appreciation to each other.
- backing light — Also called backing striplight, backing strip. Theater. a striplight providing diffused illumination for the background of a stage set.
- backpedalling — to retard the forward motion by pressing backward on the pedal, especially of a bicycle with coaster brakes.
- bacteriolysin — an antibody which, when it combines with bacterial cells, causes lysis of those cells, thus destroying them
- balance shaft — a shaft in a vehicle engine that is designed to reduce the amount of vibration from other moving parts as it rotates
- balance sheet — A balance sheet is a written statement of the amount of money and property that a company or person has, including amounts of money that are owed or are owing. Balance sheet is also used to refer to the general financial state of a company.
- balance staff — a pivoted axle or shaft on which the balance is mounted.
- balance wheel — a wheel oscillating against the hairspring of a timepiece, thereby regulating its beat
- balanced diet — a diet consisting of the proper quantities and proportions of foods needed to maintain health or growth.
- balanced fund — a mutual fund made up of both stocks and bonds
- balanced line — a transmission line in which the oppositely directed components are symmetrical with respect to each other and to the ground.
- balanced step — any of a series of staircase winders so planned that they are nearly as wide at the inside of the stair as the adjacent fliers.
- balanced tree — (algorithm) An optimisation of a tree which aims to keep equal numbers of items on each subtree of each node so as to minimise the maximum path from the root to any leaf node. As items are inserted and deleted, the tree is restructured to keep the nodes balanced and the search paths uniform. Such an algorithm is appropriate where the overheads of the reorganisation on update are outweighed by the benefits of faster search. A B-tree is a kind of balanced tree that can have more than two subtrees at each node (i.e. one that is not restricted to being a binary tree).
- balancing act — If you perform a balancing act, you try to deal successfully with two or more people, groups, or situations that are in opposition to each other.
- balch springs — a town in NE Texas.
- ballet dancer — a man or woman who takes part in ballet dancing, usually professionally
- balloon chuck — a lathe chuck having the form of a hollow hemisphere, for enclosing and holding small parts, as balance staffs of watches, so that only their ends are exposed.
- balloon clock — a bracket clock of the late 18th century, having a round dial on a short case with concave sides resting on bracket feet.
- baritone clef — an F clef locating F below middle C on the third line of the staff.
- barnacle code — (programming, humour) Any piece of code (usually a static method) that has been appended to a class where it doesn't logically belong, due to a lack of anywhere else to put it.
- baroclinicity — a common state of fluid stratification in which surfaces of constant pressure and others of constant density are not parallel but intersect.
- baseline cost — the projected cost for an undertaking at the time it is budgeted
- basic english — a simplified form of English, proposed by C. K. Ogden and I. A. Richards, containing a vocabulary of approximately 850 of the commonest English words, intended as an international language
- bass clarinet — a clarinet with the lowest range, in the octave below the B-flat clarinet
- bathylimnetic — (of an organism) living in the depths of lakes and marshes
- beacon school — a notably successful school whose methods and practices are brought to the attention of the education service as a whole in order that they may be adopted by other schools
- belgian congo — former Belgian colony (1908-60) in central Africa: now the country of Democratic Republic of the Congo
- benedictional — a book of benedictions or blessings
- beneficential — relating to beneficence
- bengal quince — bael.
- benthopelagic — relating to species living at the bottom of the sea
- benzalacetone — benzylidene acetone.
- beta-blocking — acting to inhibit the activity of the nerves that are stimulated by adrenaline
- beyond recall — If something is beyond recall, it is no longer possible to remember how it was or to bring it back to its original condition.
- bicentennials — pertaining to or in honor of a 200th anniversary: bicentennial celebration; a bicentennial exposition.
- biconditional — (of a proposition) asserting that the existence or occurrence of one thing or event depends on, and is dependent on, the existence or occurrence of another, as “A if and only if B.”.
- bicontinental — of, on, or involving two continents: a bicontinental survey.
- bicycle chain — a chain that transmits power from the pedals to the driving wheel of a bicycle
- bidenticulate — having two small teeth or toothlike processes.
- bidirectional — (of a printhead) capable of printing from left to right and from right to left
- big enchilada — enchilada (def 2).
- biomechanical — relating to biomechanics
- birectangular — having two right angles.
- bisectionally — from a bisectional point of view
- black and tan — a mixture of stout or porter and ale
- black country — a district in the English Midlands, around Birmingham: so called from the soot and grime produced by the many local industries.
- black currant — the small, round, blackish, edible fruit of a widely cultivated shrub, Ribes nigrum, of the saxifrage family.