14-letter words containing a, m
- banana problem — (programming, humour) From the story of the little girl who said "I know how to spell "banana", but I don't know when to stop". Not knowing where or when to bring a production to a close (compare fencepost error). One may say "there is a banana problem" of an algorithm with poorly defined or incorrect termination conditions, or in discussing the evolution of a design that may be succumbing to featuritis (see also creeping elegance, creeping featuritis).
- bandar lampung — a port in Indonesia, in S Sumatra on the Sunda Strait; formed by merging the cities of Tanjungkarang and Telukbetung, and sometimes still referred to as Tanjungkarang-Telukbetung. Pop: 742 749 (2000)
- bank statement — A bank statement is a printed document showing all the money paid into and taken out of a bank account. Bank statements are usually sent by a bank to a customer at regular intervals.
- baptismal font — a large bowl for baptismal water, usually mounted on a pedestal
- baptismal name — Christian name (def 1).
- baptismal vows — the solemn promises made during baptism, either by the person baptized or by his or her sponsors
- barba amarilla — fer-de-lance.
- barium bromate — colorless, slightly water-soluble, poisonous crystals, Ba(BrO 3) 2 ⋅H 2 O, used in the preparation of certain bromates.
- barium sulfate — an odorless, tasteless, white powder, BaSO4, insoluble in water: it is used as a paint pigment, as a filler for paper, textiles , etc., and as an opaque substance that is ingested to aid in making diagnostic X-rays of the stomach and intestine
- barium sulfide — a gray or yellowish-green, water-soluble, poisonous powder, BaS, used chiefly as a depilatory and as an intermediate in the synthesis of pigments, especially lithopone.
- barium-hydrate — Also called calcined baryta, barium oxide, barium monoxide, barium protoxide. a white or yellowish-white poisonous solid, BaO, highly reactive with water: used chiefly as a dehydrating agent and in the manufacture of glass.
- barometrically — By means of a barometer.
- barometrograph — barograph.
- barrier method — Barrier methods of contraception involve the use of condoms, diaphragms, or other devices that physically prevent the sperm from reaching the egg.
- base community — (especially in South America) a group of people taking part in religious devotions and Bible study, who seek to apply this in their socioeconomic and political situation.
- base component — the system of rules in a transformational grammar that specify the deep structure of the language
- basidiomycetes — Mycology. any of a group of fungi constituting the phylum Basidiomycota of the kingdom Fungi (or, in older classification schemes, the class Basidiomycetes of the kingdom Plantae), characterized by bearing the spores on a basidium, including the smuts, rust, mushrooms, and puffballs.
- batement light — a compartment of a window with tracery, the bottom of which is formed by the arched head of a compartment or compartments below.
- battered woman — See under battered woman syndrome.
- battered-women — the array of physical and psychological injuries exhibited by women (battered women or battered wives) who have been beaten repeatedly or otherwise abused by their partners or spouses.
- batting helmet — a rigid plastic cap with a sidepiece extending down over the ear, worn for protection while batting
- bavarian cream — a cold dessert consisting of a rich custard set with gelatine and flavoured in various ways
- bay psalm book — a translation of the Psalms by John Eliot and others: the first book published (1640) in America.
- bayes' theorem — the fundamental result which expresses the conditional probability P(E/A) of an event E given an event A as P(A/E).P(E)/P(A); more generally, where En is one of a set of values Ei which partition the sample space, P(En/A) = P(A/En)P(En)/Σ P(A/Ei)P(Ei). This enables prior estimates of probability to be continually revised in the light of observations
- beach umbrella — a large umbrella used as a sunshade on the beach
- beach wormwood — a composite plant, Artemisia stellerana, having yellow flowers and deeply lobed leaves covered with dense white fuzz.
- béchamel sauce — a thick white sauce flavoured with onion and seasonings
- bechamel-sauce — a white sauce, sometimes seasoned with onion and nutmeg.
- beclomethasone — a potent synthetic corticosteroid, C 28 H 37 ClO 7 , prepared as an inhalant in the treatment of bronchial asthma.
- bedside manner — A doctor's bedside manner is the way in which they talk to their patients.
- bermuda collar — a narrow, pointed collar on a woman's dress or blouse
- bermuda cutter — a marconi-rigged cutter.
- bermuda shorts — close-fitting shorts that come down to the knees
- bertrand meyer — The author of the Eiffel Language and many articles on object-oriented software techniques.
- beta geminorum — Pollux
- bethlehem sage — a plant, Pulmonaria saccharata, of the borage family, native to Europe, having mottled, white leaves and white or reddish-purple flowers in clusters.
- betterment tax — a tax on an increase in the value of property effected by improvement
- beyond compare — If you describe something as beyond compare, you mean that it is extremely good or extremely great.
- beyond measure — If you say that something has changed or that it has affected you beyond measure, you are emphasizing that it has done this to a great extent.
- bibliomaniacal — relating to a bibliomaniac
- bidialectalism — the state of being bidialectal
- bildungsromane — a type of novel concerned with the education, development, and maturing of a young protagonist.
- billy no-mates — a person with no friends
- bioclimatology — the study of the effects of climatic conditions on living organisms
- biocontainment — the confinement, as by sealed-off chambers, of materials that are harmful or potentially harmful to life.
- biogeochemical — of or relating to biogeochemistry
- bioinformatics — the branch of information science concerned with large databases of biochemical or pharmaceutical information
- biomathematics — the study of the application of mathematics to biology
- bioregionalism — the conviction that environmental and social policies should be determined by the bioregion rather than economics or politics
- bioremediation — the use of plants to extract heavy metals from contaminated soils and water