15-letter words containing a, n, t
- atrabiliousness — The state or quality of being characterized by melancholy or glumness.
- attorney-at-law — a lawyer qualified to represent in court a party to a legal action
- 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
- audio equipment — electrical devices used to play or record sound
- auditor general — (in Canada) a federal official responsible for auditing government departments and making an annual report
- audubon society — a North American organization devoted to the conservancy of birds
- augmented roman — a writing system based on an expanded English alphabet, consisting of 43 characters representing different phonemes of spoken English, used for teaching beginners to read. Abbreviation: I.T.A., i.t.a.
- augmented sixth — an interval greater than a major sixth by a chromatic half step.
- australian alps — a mountain range in SE Australia, in E Victoria and SE New South Wales. Highest peak: Mount Kosciuszko, 2195 m (7316 ft)
- australian mist — a breed of medium-sized cat with a short spotted or marbled coat
- australian pine — casuarina
- austria-hungary — the Dual Monarchy established in 1867, consisting of what are now Austria, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Croatia, and Bosnia-Herzegovina, and parts of Poland, Romania, Ukraine, and Italy. The empire was broken up after World War I
- authenticatable — to establish as genuine.
- authentications — Plural form of authentication.
- autocannibalism — The eating of part of one's own body.
- autocollimation — the process used in an autocollimator.
- 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.
- autoinoculation — the inoculation of microorganisms (esp viruses) from one part of the body into another, usually in the form of a vaccine
- autotransformer — a transformer in which part of the winding is common to both primary and secondary circuits
- autotransfusion — a process in which a patient receives some of his or her own blood in a transfusion rather than a donor's blood
- autotransplants — Plural form of autotransplant.
- avant la lettre — before the (specified) concept, word, person, etc. existed
- babinski effect — the reflex curling upwards of the toes (instead of inwards) when the sole of the foot is stroked, normal in infants below the age of two but a pathological condition in adults
- 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 method — induction (def 4a).
- 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
- bag on the side — An extension to an established hack that is supposed to add some functionality to the original. Usually derogatory, implying that the original was being overextended and should have been thrown away, and the new product is ugly, inelegant, or bloated. Also "to hang a bag on the side [of]". "C++? That's just a bag on the side of C." "They want me to hang a bag on the side of the accounting system."
- bait and switch — Bait and switch is used to refer to a sales technique in which goods are advertised at low prices in order to attract customers, although only a small number of the low-priced goods are available.
- bait-and-switch — denoting a deceptive method of selling, by which customers, attracted to a store by sale items, are told either that the advertised bargain item is out of stock or is inferior to a higher-priced item that is available.
- balance control — a state of equilibrium or equipoise; equal distribution of weight, amount, etc.
- balanced ticket — a slate of candidates chosen to appeal to a wide range of voters, especially by including members of large regional, ethnic, or religious groups.
- balanoposthitis — An inflammation of the glans penis and the prepuce.
- ball ammunition — live small-arms ammunition
- balloon payment — a large payment that concludes a series of smaller payments, for example in order to repay a loan
- ballpoint (pen) — a pen having, instead of a point, a small ball bearing that picks up its ink by rolling against an interior ink reservoir
- baltic exchange — a group of companies, based in London, which engages in trading activities, esp chartering cargo vessels
- banded anteater — an Australian marsupial, Myrmecobius fasciatus, feeding on termites and having the body marked with whitish transverse bars: nearly extinct.
- bandpass filter — A bandpass filter is a filter designed to pass all frequencies within a band of frequencies.
- bandstop filter — A bandstop filter is a filter designed to eliminate all frequencies within a band of frequencies.
- bangtail muster — a roundup of cattle to be counted, each one having the hairs on its tail docked as it is counted
- bank acceptance — a bill of exchange or draft drawn on and endorsed by a bank
- banking product — one of the various services offered by a bank to its customers: mortgages, loans, insurance etc
- banqueting hall — a large building or room used for feasts
- bar examination — a written examination to determine if one is qualified to practice law in a particular jurisdiction.
- bare infinitive — an infinitive verb form without to, used with certain auxiliary verbs , as in I must go. All I did was ask. We might win.