15-letter words containing a, n, t, r, c
- antituberculous — (medicine) Acting to combat or counteract tuberculosis.
- aortic stenosis — abnormal narrowing of the aorta, especially of its orifice, usually as a result of rheumatic fever or embryologic anomalies.
- apartment block — building: flats, apartments
- apprentice work — work done when young and a novice
- apprenticeships — Plural form of apprenticeship.
- archaeastronomy — (astronomy, archaeology) The historical, especially archeological, study of astronomy; the study of the astronomical systems and methods of ancient cultures often embracing the astrology and cosmology of the past.
- archaeobotanist — A person engaged in archaeobotany.
- archeoastronomy — the branch of archaeology that deals with the apparent use by prehistoric civilizations of astronomical techniques to establish the seasons or the cycle of the year, especially as evidenced in the construction of megaliths and other ritual structures.
- architectonical — Alternative form of architectonic.
- arithmetic mean — an average value of a set of integers, terms, or quantities, expressed as their sum divided by their number
- arms inspection — the official checking of a country's weapons and other military equipment, usually to check that international agreements have been respected
- artificial gene — a duplicate gene synthesized in the laboratory by combining nucleotides in a sequence characteristic of the copied gene.
- artificialness' — made by human skill; produced by humans (opposed to natural): artificial flowers.
- arts and crafts — decorative handicraft and design, esp that of the Arts and Crafts movement, in late nineteenth-century Britain, which sought to revive medieval craftsmanship
- assured tenancy — an agreement between a government-approved body such as a housing association and a tenant for occupation of a newly-built house or flat at an agreed market rent, under which the tenant has security of tenure
- astrodynamicist — a person who studies astrodynamics
- astronautically — In an astronautic way.
- at first glance — If you say that something is true or seems to be true at first glance, you mean that it seems to be true when you first see it or think about it, but that your first impression may be wrong.
- at short notice — Notice is used in expressions such as 'at short notice', 'at a moment's notice' or 'at twenty-four hours' notice', to indicate that something can or must be done within a short period of time.
- at the controls — If someone is at the controls of a machine or other piece of equipment, they are operating it.
- atlantic ridley — ridley (def 1).
- atlantic-ridley — ridley (def 1).
- audience rating — a figure based on statistical sampling indicating what proportion of the total listening and viewing audience tune in to a specific programme or network
- autocorrelation — the condition occurring when successive items in a series are correlated so that their covariance is not zero and they are not independent
- autofluorescent — Of, pertaining to, or exhibiting autofluorescence.
- back plastering — the introduction of partitions of lath and plaster between the inner and outer surfaces of a stud wall in order to improve the insulating properties of the wall.
- back projection — a method of projecting pictures onto a translucent screen so that they are viewed from the opposite side, used esp in films to create the illusion that the actors in the foreground are moving
- back-scratching — a reciprocal exchange of favors, aid, or compliments
- backup rotation — (operating system) Any system for re-using backup media, e.g. magnetic tape. One extreme would be to use the same media for every backup (e.g. copy disk A to disk B), the other extreme would be to use new media every time. The trade-off is between the cost of buying and storing media and the ability to restore any version of any file. One example is the Grandfather, Father, Son (GFS) scheme.
- baconian theory — the theory attributing the authorship of Shakespeare's plays to Francis Bacon.
- badminton court — the court on which games of badminton are played
- balance control — a state of equilibrium or equipoise; equal distribution of weight, amount, etc.
- banking product — one of the various services offered by a bank to its customers: mortgages, loans, insurance etc
- bargain counter — a store counter on which goods are displayed for sale at reduced prices
- barycentrically — In a barycentric manner.
- belt-and-braces — providing double security, in case one security measure should fail
- benedict arnold — Benedict, 1741–1801, American general in the Revolutionary War who became a traitor.
- beta conversion — (theory) A term from lambda-calculus for beta reduction or beta abstraction.
- beta-adrenergic — pertaining to or involving beta receptors
- bidirectionally — in a bidirectional manner
- bioastronautics — the study of the effects of space flight on living organisms
- black operation — a covert and undocumented military operation
- black snakeroot — a tall bugbane, Cimicifuga racemosa, of the buttercup family, of eastern North America, having thin, tapering, toothed or deeply cut leaflets and branched clusters of small, white flowers.
- blank cartridge — a cartridge containing powder but no bullet: used in battle practice or as a signal
- boa constrictor — A boa constrictor is a large snake that kills animals by wrapping itself round their bodies and squeezing them to death. Boa constrictors are found mainly in South and Central America and the West Indies.
- boston massacre — an outbreak (1770) in Boston against British troops, in which a few citizens were killed
- brachistochrone — the curve between two points through which a body moves under the force of gravity in a shorter time than for any other curve; the path of quickest descent
- branchial cleft — Zoology. one of a series of slitlike openings in the walls of the pharynx between the branchial arches of fishes and aquatic amphibians through which water passes from the pharynx to the exterior.
- branchiostegous — branchiostegal.
- breakeven chart — a graph measuring the value of an enterprise's revenue and costs against some index of its activity, such as percentage capacity. The intersection of the total revenue and total cost curves gives the breakeven point