0%

13-letter words containing a, n, c, r

  • 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).
  • balch springs — a town in NE Texas.
  • ballet dancer — a man or woman who takes part in ballet dancing, usually professionally
  • bancassurance — the selling of insurance products by a bank to its customers
  • band spectrum — a spectrum consisting of a number of bands of closely spaced lines that are associated with emission or absorption of radiation by molecules
  • bandicoot rat — any of three burrowing rats of the genera Bandicota and Nesokia, of S and SE Asia: family Muridae
  • banister back — a back of a chair or the like, usually having semicircular spindles between the top rail and the cross rail or seat.
  • barefacedness — The state or quality of being barefaced.
  • bargain price — a low price
  • 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.
  • basement-rock — the undifferentiated assemblage of rock (basement rock) underlying the oldest stratified rocks in any region: usually crystalline, metamorphosed, and mostly, but not necessarily, Precambrian in age.
  • basic fortran — (language)   A subset of Fortran.
  • bass clarinet — a clarinet with the lowest range, in the octave below the B-flat clarinet
  • batrachotoxin — a steroidal alkaloid, C31H42N2O6, found in the skin of certain Neotropical frogs (genus Phyllobates) and used on poison arrows: one of the most powerful natural neurotoxins known
  • beanbag chair — a chair like a large beanbag covered with vinyl, fabric, etc. and filled with foam pellets, as of polystyrene, that shift about to fit one's body
  • bench warrant — a warrant issued by a judge or court directing that an offender be apprehended
  • beneficiary's — a person or group that receives benefits, profits, or advantages.
  • berchtesgaden — a town in Germany, in SE Bavaria: site of the fortified mountain retreat of Adolf Hitler. Pop: 7667 (2003 est)
  • beta carotene — a yellowish form of carotene: a dietary deficiency of this is associated with a greater risk of certain cancers
  • beta-carotene — the most abundant of various isomers of carotene, C 40 H 56 , that can be converted by the body to vitamin A.
  • 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.
  • bib and brace — a work garment consisting of trousers and an upper front part supported by straps over the shoulders
  • bidirectional — (of a printhead) capable of printing from left to right and from right to left
  • binary search — (algorithm)   A search algorithm which repeatedly divides an ordered search space in half according to how the required (key) value compares with the middle element. The following pseudo-C routine performs a binary search return the index of the element of vector "thing[first..last]" equal to "target": if (target < thing[first] || target > thing[last]) return NOT_FOUND; while (first < last) { mid = (first+last)/2; /* truncate to integer */ if (target == thing[mid]) return mid; if (target < thing[mid]) last = mid-1; else first = mid+1; } if (target == thing[last]) return last; return NOT_FOUND; (2003-01-14)
  • bird-watching — Bird-watching is the activity of watching and studying wild birds in their natural surroundings.
  • birectangular — having two right angles.
  • 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.
  • black panther — (in the US) a member of a militant Black political party (1965–82) founded to end the political dominance of White people
  • black russian — a drink made from one part coffee liqueur and two parts vodka, served over ice.
  • blast furnace — A blast furnace is a large structure in which iron ore is heated under pressure so that it melts and the pure iron metal separates out and can be collected.
  • boarding card — A boarding card is a card which a passenger must have when boarding a plane or a boat.
  • body snatcher — (formerly) a person who robbed graves and sold the corpses for dissection
  • bonanza creek — a stream in W Yukon Territory, Canada, flowing NW to the Klondike River near Dawson: gold strike 1896. 20 miles (32 km) long.
  • boraginaceous — of, relating to, or belonging to the Boraginaceae, a family of temperate and tropical typically hairy-leaved flowering plants that includes forget-me-not, lungwort, borage, comfrey, and heliotrope
  • boron carbide — a black extremely hard inert substance having a high capture cross section for thermal neutrons. It is used as an abrasive, refractory, and in control rods in nuclear reactors. Formula: B4C
  • bounce around — to spring back from a surface in a lively manner: The ball bounced off the wall.
  • boundary scan — The use of scan registers to capture state from device input and output pins. IEEE Standard 1149.1-1990 describes the international standard implementation (sometimes called JTAG after the Joint Test Action Group which began the standardisation work).
  • brace and bit — a hand tool for boring holes, consisting of a cranked handle into which a drilling bit is inserted
  • brace molding — keel1 (def 6).
  • brachycranial — brachycephalic
  • brain scanner — a machine used to perform brain scans
  • brain-picking — the act of obtaining information or ideas by questioning another person.
  • branch office — the local branch of a bank, shop, or other business
  • branch rickey — (Wesley) Branch, 1881–1965, U.S. baseball executive.
  • break dancing — a style of dance engaged in by youths, involving acrobatic movements, spinning about on the head or shoulders, etc.
  • breast cancer — cancer affecting the breasts
  • breechloading — loaded at the breech.
Was this page helpful?
Yes No
Thank you for your feedback! Tell your friends about this page
Tell us why?