12-letter words containing a, l, s, o
- blastomycete — any of a genus (Blastomyces) of yeastlike imperfect fungi that cause diseases in people and animals
- blastosphere — blastula
- blastulation — the process of blastula formation
- block island — an island off the coast of and a part of Rhode Island, at the E entrance to Long Island Sound.
- block signal — a fixed railroad signal governing the movements of trains entering and using a given section of track.
- blood plasma — the pale yellow fluid portion of the blood; blood from which red and white blood cells and platelets have been removed
- blood sample — an amount of a person's blood taken from their body for use in medical tests
- blood spavin — a disease of the hock joint of horses in which enlargement occurs because of collected fluids (bog spavin) bony growth (bone spavin) or distention of the veins (blood spavin)
- bloodstained — Someone or something that is bloodstained is covered with blood.
- board school — (formerly) a school managed by a board elected by local ratepayers
- boardsailing — windsurfing
- bog asphodel — either of two liliaceous plants, Narthecium ossifragum of Europe or N. americanum of North America, that grow in boggy places and have small yellow flowers and grasslike leaves
- bombay hills — a row of hills marking the southern boundary of greater Auckland on the North Island, New Zealand
- bonnet glass — monteith (def 2).
- bonnet-glass — a large punch bowl, usually of silver, having a notched rim for suspending punch cups.
- borosilicate — a salt of boric and silicic acids
- bottle glass — glass used for making bottles, consisting of a silicate of sodium, calcium, and aluminium
- bottlewasher — a person or machine that washes bottles.
- bounce flash — a flash lamp designed to produce a bounced flash.
- box lacrosse — a form of lacrosse played indoors, usually on a hockey rink with a wooden floor, between two teams of six players.
- boyoma falls — a series of seven cataracts in the NE Democratic Republic of Congo, on the upper River Congo: forms an unnavigable stretch of 90 km (56 miles), which falls 60 m (200 ft)
- brass-collar — unwaveringly faithful to a political party; voting the straight ticket: a brass-collar Democrat.
- breastplough — a plough driven by the worker's breast, often used to pare turf
- brooks's law — (programming) "Adding manpower to a late software project makes it later" - a result of the fact that the expected advantage from splitting work among N programmers is O(N) (that is, proportional to N), but the complexity and communications cost associated with coordinating and then merging their work is O(N^2) (that is, proportional to the square of N). The quote is from Fred Brooks, a manager of IBM's OS/360 project and author of "The Mythical Man-Month". The myth in question has been most tersely expressed as "Programmer time is fungible" and Brooks established conclusively that it is not. Hackers have never forgotten his advice; too often, management still does. See also creationism, second-system effect, optimism.
- buffalo fish — any of a genus (Ictiobus) of large, humpbacked, freshwater sucker fishes found in North America
- burro's tail — a succulent Mexican plant, Sedum morganianum, of the stonecrop family, bearing small, rose-colored flowers and long, hanging, nearly cylindrical stems with closely packed whitish-green leaves.
- by wholesale — at wholesale
- byelorussian — Byelorussian means belonging or relating to Byelorussia or to its people or culture.
- cactoblastis — a moth, Cactoblastis cactorum of South America, that was introduced into Australia to act as a biological control on the prickly pear
- cadaverously — In a cadaverous manner.
- cadet school — a training establishment for cadets in the army
- caesalpinoid — of, relating to, or belonging to the Caesalpinoideae, a mainly tropical subfamily of leguminous plants that have irregular flowers: includes carob, senna, brazil, cassia, and poinciana
- calamitously — In a calamitous manner.
- calcareously — in a calcareous manner
- calculations — Plural form of calculation.
- calibrations — Plural form of calibration.
- caliginosity — darkness
- call to arms — a command to report for active military duty.
- calorescence — the absorption of radiation by a body, subsequently re-emitted at a higher frequency (lower wavelength)
- calorimeters — Plural form of calorimeter.
- calumniators — Plural form of calumniator.
- calumniously — in a calumnious manner
- calycoideous — calycoid
- camelopardus — a faint extensive constellation in the N hemisphere close to Ursa Major and Cassiopeia
- caméra stylo — the use of the camera as a means of personal expression, esp as practised by some directors of the New Wave
- canalisation — The conversion of a river or other waterway to a canal.
- canoe slalom — a competitive event in which a canoeist maneuvers through a slalom course, usually in white water.
- canonicalise — (transitive, computing, UK) Alternative form of canonicalize.
- capillaceous — having numerous filaments resembling hairs or threads
- capital cost — a cost incurred on the purchase of land, buildings, construction and equipment to be used in the production of goods or the rendering of services