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17-letter words containing a, l, o, n

  • bachelor's-button — any of various plants with round flower heads, especially the cornflower.
  • back on the rails — If something is back on the rails, it is beginning to be successful again after a period when it almost failed.
  • bacon's rebellion — an unsuccessful uprising by frontiersmen in Virginia in 1676, led by Nathaniel Bacon against the colonial government in Jamestown.
  • balance of nature — the stable state in which natural communities of animals and plants exist, maintained by adaptation, competition, and other interactions between members of the communit ies and their nonliving environment
  • balance of terror — military deterrence based on the possession of weapons of mass destruction by opponents in a conflict
  • balance the books — do accounting
  • bald-faced hornet — any large, stinging paper wasp of the family Vespidae, as Vespa crabro (giant hornet) introduced into the U.S. from Europe, or Vespula maculata (bald-faced hornet or white-faced hornet) of North America.
  • bangalore torpedo — an explosive device in a long metal tube, used to blow gaps in barbed-wire barriers
  • barrel distortion — distortion of an image produced by an optical system that causes straight lines at image margins to bulge outwards
  • bartholin's gland — either of two small glands near the vaginal opening: during sexual excitement they secrete a mucous lubricating substance
  • battle of britain — (in World War II) the series of aerial combats that took place between British and German aircraft during the autumn of 1940 and that included the severe bombardment of British cities.
  • benoit mandelbrot — (person)   /ben'wa man'dl-bro/ Benoit B. Mandelbrot. The IBM scientist who wrote several original books on fractals and gave his name to the set he was discovered, the Mandelbrot set and coined the term "fractal" in 1975 from the Latin fractus or "to break".
  • bill of adventure — a certificate made out by a merchant to show that goods handled by him and his agents are the property of another party at whose risk the dealing is done
  • bill of attainder — (formerly) a legislative act finding a person guilty without trial of treason or felony and declaring him attainted
  • binet-simon scale — a test comprising questions and tasks, used to determine the mental age of subjects, usually children
  • binocular rivalry — the phenomenon whereby one is unable to see simultaneously different images presented one to each eye; usually in some areas of the eye the image presented to the left eye is seen, in others that presented to the right eye
  • biological parent — a parent who has conceived (biological mother) or sired (biological father) rather than adopted a child and whose genes are therefore transmitted to the child.
  • biological weapon — a weapon which uses a biological agent to harm people and other living organisms
  • bitter almond oil — almond oil (def 2).
  • bitter-almond-oil — Also called sweet almond oil, expressed almond oil. a colorless to pale yellow fatty oil expressed from the seeds of the sweet almond, used in preparing perfumes and confections.
  • black nationalism — a movement advocating the establishment of a separate black nation within the U.S.
  • black-box testing — functional testing
  • blackboard jungle — a school or school system characterized by lack of discipline and by juvenile delinquency.
  • blackout curtains — thick, lined curtains designed to shut out all daylight and keep a room in complete darkness
  • bland-allison act — an act of Congress (1878) requiring the federal government to purchase at the market price from two to four million dollars' worth of silver monthly for conversion into silver dollars containing 16 times more silver per coin than gold in dollar coins of gold.
  • blank endorsement — an endorsement on a bill of exchange, cheque, etc, naming no payee and thus making the endorsed sum payable to the bearer
  • blind carbon copy — a duplicate of anything written or typed, or a copy of an email or other electronic document, that is sent to someone whose name is not visible to the primary addressee. Abbreviation: bcc.
  • block association — an association for the residents of a particular block in a neighbourhood to discuss and act on matters of common concern
  • blocking antibody — Immunology. an antibody that partly combines with an antigen and interferes with cell-mediated immunity, thereby preventing an allergic reaction.
  • blood and thunder — A blood and thunder performer or performance is very loud and emotional.
  • blood transfusion — A blood transfusion is a process in which blood is injected into the body of a person who is badly injured or ill.
  • blood-and-thunder — sensationalism, violence, or exaggerated melodrama: a movie full of blood and thunder.
  • blow hot and cold — to vacillate
  • blow someone away — to kill by shooting
  • blowpipe analysis — a type of chemical analysis in which the intensely hot flame of a blowpipe vaporizes a mineral or other substance with a characteristically colored flame and a unique odor, so as to identify chemical elements in a substance
  • blue false indigo — a North American plant, Baptisia australis, of the legume family, having wedge-shaped leaflets and blue, clustered flowers.
  • bluegrass country — region in central Ky. where there is much bluegrass
  • board and lodging — If you are provided with board and lodging, you are provided with food and a place to sleep, especially as part of the conditions of a job.
  • board-and-shingle — a small dwelling with wooden walls and a shingle roof
  • boat-billed heron — a nocturnal, tropical American wading bird (Cochlearius cochlearius) with a large, broad bill: it is the only member of a family (Cochleariidae) of wading birds
  • body center plate — one of a pair of plates that fit together and support the body of a car on a truck, while allowing the truck to rotate with respect to the body. One plate (body center plate) is attached to the underside of the car body and the other (truck center plate) is part of the car truck.
  • boolean operation — any operation in which each of the operands and the result take one of two values.
  • boothia peninsula — a peninsula of N Canada: the northernmost part of the mainland of North America, lying west of the Gulf of Boothia, an arm of the Arctic Ocean
  • boots and saddles — a bugle call formerly used in the US Cavalry to summon soldiers to mount
  • bouncebackability — the ability to recover after a setback, esp in sport
  • branch delay slot — delayed control-transfer
  • brazilian peridot — a light yellowish-green tourmaline used as a gem: not a true peridot.
  • breakdown voltage — the minimum applied voltage that would cause a given insulator or electrode to break down.
  • breathe life into — revive, rejuvenate
  • british columbian — of or relating to British Columbia or its inhabitants
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