13-letter words containing a, n, d, e
- autoresponder — A program that automatically generates a set response to all messages sent to a particular e-mail address.
- bab el mandeb — a strait between SW Arabia and E Africa, connecting the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden
- back-end load — the final charges of commission and expenses made by an investment trust, insurance policy, etc, when the investor is paid out
- backgrounders — Plural form of backgrounder.
- backpedalling — to retard the forward motion by pressing backward on the pedal, especially of a bicycle with coaster brakes.
- baker's dozen — thirteen
- baking powder — Baking powder is an ingredient used in cake making. It causes cakes to rise when they are in the oven.
- 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).
- ballet dancer — a man or woman who takes part in ballet dancing, usually professionally
- balloon shade — a window shade that when raised is gathered into a series of puffy festoons created by inverted pleats in the fabric.
- banana bender — a native or inhabitant of Queensland
- banana spider — a large, yellowish, tropical crab spider (Heteropoda venatoria) occasionally found in bunches of bananas shipped to the Temperate Zones
- 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
- band together — If people band together, they meet and act as a group in order to try and achieve something.
- banded purple — any color having components of both red and blue, such as lavender, especially one deep in tone.
- banderilleros — Plural form of banderillero.
- bandspreading — an additional tuning control in some radio receivers whereby a selected narrow band of frequencies can be spread over a wider frequency band, in order to give finer control of tuning
- barefacedness — The state or quality of being barefaced.
- 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.
- basket dinner — a group social gathering, as of church members, to which participants contribute casseroles or other dishes to share.
- bastard eigne — the first-born illegitimate son of parents whose second son was legitimate.
- batting order — the sequence in which hitters will bat in a given game, determined in advance by the team manager.
- battlegrounds — Plural form of battleground.
- be hard going — If you say that something is hard going, you mean it is difficult and requires a lot of effort.
- be upstanding — (in a court of law) a direction to all persons present to rise to their feet before the judge enters or leaves the court
- bead and reel — a convex molding having the form of elongated beads alternating with disks placed edge-on, or with spherical beads, or with both.
- beaked salmon — sandfish (def 2).
- beaked-salmon — sandfish (def 2).
- bearing sword — a large sword carried for its owner by a squire or servant because of its size.
- beat the band — a company of persons or, sometimes, animals or things, joined, acting, or functioning together; aggregation; party; troop: a band of protesters.
- bed and board — sleeping accommodation and meals
- bedding plane — the surface separating two successive layers of stratified rock
- bedding plant — A bedding plant is a plant which lasts for one year. It is put in a flower bed before it flowers, and is then removed when it has finished flowering.
- bedding-plant — bedmaker (def 1).
- beetlebrained — stupid
- belly landing — the landing of an aircraft on its fuselage without use of its landing gear
- benedictional — a book of benedictions or blessings
- benefit fraud — the illegal activity of claiming benefit payments which a person is not entitled to
- benzimidazole — a crystalline growth-inhibiting compound
- berchtesgaden — a town in Germany, in SE Bavaria: site of the fortified mountain retreat of Adolf Hitler. Pop: 7667 (2003 est)
- bermuda onion — a large white or yellow onion with a mild flavor, grown in Texas, California, etc.
- beyond a joke — If you say that an annoying or worrying situation is beyond a joke, you are emphasizing that it is worse than you think is fair or reasonable.
- 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
- bible reading — a passage from the Bible, esp one read in a service
- bidenticulate — having two small teeth or toothlike processes.