13-letter words containing a, n, h, r
- asthenosphere — a thin semifluid layer of the earth (100–200 km thick), below the outer rigid lithosphere, forming part of the mantle and thought to be able to flow vertically and horizontally, enabling sections of lithosphere to subside, rise, and undergo lateral movement
- at first hand — If you learn or experience something at first hand, you experience it yourself or learn it directly rather than being told about it by other people.
- athenagoras i — (Aristocles Spyrou) 1886–1972, Archbishop Ecumenical of Constantinople and Ecumenical Patriarch of the Greek Orthodox Church 1948–72.
- atherogenesis — (medicine) The formation of atheromas, especially on the walls of the arteries.
- aum shinrikyo — a syncretistic Japanese cult combining elements of Buddhism, Hinduism, and Christianity, founded by Shoko Asahara in 1986; responsible for a number of murders and in particular a nerve-gas attack on the Tokyo underground in 1995
- authenticator — a person or thing that authenticates.
- authorisation — Alternative spelling of authorization.
- authoritarian — If you describe a person or an organization as authoritarian, you are critical of them controlling everything rather than letting people decide things for themselves.
- authorization — an authorizing or being authorized
- baby snatcher — a person who steals a baby from its pram
- balch springs — a town in NE Texas.
- balneotherapy — the treatment of disease by bathing, esp to improve limb mobility in arthritic and neuromuscular disorders
- band together — If people band together, they meet and act as a group in order to try and achieve something.
- banking hours — the hours during which a bank is open for business
- baronial hall — a large building or room owned by a baron
- bartholinitis — Inflammation of Bartholin's cyst.
- basking shark — a very large plankton-eating shark, Cetorhinus maximus, often floating at the sea surface: family Cetorhinidae
- 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
- be hard going — If you say that something is hard going, you mean it is difficult and requires a lot of effort.
- 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
- benton harbor — a city in SW Michigan, on Lake Michigan.
- berchtesgaden — a town in Germany, in SE Bavaria: site of the fortified mountain retreat of Adolf Hitler. Pop: 7667 (2003 est)
- bethnal green — a former borough of London, England, N of the Thames.
- bharat natyam — a form of Indian classical ballet
- bharata natya — a traditional south Indian dance style, formerly performed only by devadasis.
- 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.
- birth parents — a child's biological parents, regardless of whether they subsequently bring up the child
- birthing ball — a large soft rubber ball used by women during childbirth to give support and to aid pain relief
- black panther — (in the US) a member of a militant Black political party (1965–82) founded to end the political dominance of White people
- boardinghouse — a private house in which accommodation and meals are provided for paying guests
- body snatcher — (formerly) a person who robbed graves and sold the corpses for dissection
- bohr magneton — a unit that is used to indicate the magnetic moment of the electron structure in an atom, equal to 9.27 × 10 −21 erg/gauss.
- brachycranial — brachycephalic
- brahminy kite — a common kite, Haliastur indus, of southern Asia and the southwest Pacific islands, having reddish-brown plumage with a white head and breast.
- branch office — the local branch of a bank, shop, or other business
- branch rickey — (Wesley) Branch, 1881–1965, U.S. baseball executive.
- breathe again — to feel relief
- breechloading — loaded at the breech.
- brigham young — Andrew (Jackson, Jr.) born 1932, U.S. clergyman, civil-rights leader, politician, and diplomat: mayor of Atlanta, Georgia, 1981–89.
- brinksmanship — the technique or practice of maneuvering a dangerous situation to the limits of tolerance or safety in order to secure the greatest advantage, especially by creating diplomatic crises.
- british asian — A British Asian person is someone of Indian, Pakistani, or Bangladeshi origin who has grown up in Britain.
- british india — the 17 provinces of India formerly governed by the British under the British sovereign: ceased to exist in 1947 when the independent states of India and Pakistan were created
- brokenhearted — Someone who is brokenhearted is very sad and upset because they have had a serious disappointment.
- bronchography — radiography of the bronchial tubes after the introduction of a radiopaque medium into the bronchi
- bronze whaler — a shark, Carcharhinus brachyurus, of southern Australian waters, having a bronze-coloured back
- burnham scale — the salary scale for teachers in English state schools, which is revised periodically
- burt standish — Burt L. pseudonym of Gilbert Patten.
- call the turn — to predict successfully