14-letter words containing a, p, e, r
- arriere-pensee — an unrevealed thought or intention
- arteriographic — relating to arteriography
- arthroplasties — Plural form of arthroplasty.
- asparagus bean — a trailing, long-stemmed Asian vine, Vigna unguiculata sesquipedalis, of the legume family, having yellow or violet flowers and very long pods.
- asparagus fern — a fernlike species of asparagus, A. plumosus, native to southern Africa
- assemblyperson — a member of a legislative assembly, especially a member of the lower house of the legislature in certain states of the U.S.
- asthenospermia — (medicine) Loss or reduction in the strength or energy of sperm cells, hence infertility. Not always infertile many are subfertile.
- asthenospermic — (medicine) Characterised by or pertaining to asthenospermia, hence infertile.
- asthenospheric — relating to the asthenosphere
- astrocompasses — Plural form of astrocompass.
- at one's peril — If you say that someone does something at their peril, you are warning them that they will probably suffer as a result of doing it.
- atomic-powered — powered by atomic energy
- audio response — a computer response that is audible rather than textual or graphical
- autobiographer — a person who writes the story of his or her own life
- autoresponders — Plural form of autoresponder.
- autotetraploid — an individual or strain whose chromosome complement consists of four copies of a single genome due to doubling of an ancestral chromosome complement
- bachelor party — A bachelor party is a party for a man who is getting married very soon, to which only men are invited.
- bacteriophages — Plural form of bacteriophage.
- balance spring — hairspring.
- ballet slipper — a heelless cloth or leather slipper worn by ballet dancers.
- balsam of peru — an aromatic balsam that is obtained from the tropical South American leguminous tree Myroxylon pereirae and is similar to balsam of Tolu
- baltimore chop — a batted ball that takes a high bounce upon hitting the ground on or immediately in front of home plate, often enabling the batter to reach first base safely.
- banana problem — (programming, humour) From the story of the little girl who said "I know how to spell "banana", but I don't know when to stop". Not knowing where or when to bring a production to a close (compare fencepost error). One may say "there is a banana problem" of an algorithm with poorly defined or incorrect termination conditions, or in discussing the evolution of a design that may be succumbing to featuritis (see also creeping elegance, creeping featuritis).
- bancroft prize — one of a group of annual awards for literary achievement in American history and biography: administered by Columbia University.
- barbados pride — Also called bead tree. a tropical African and Asian tree, Adenanthera pavonina, of the legume family, having feathery foliage and bearing red seeds that are used in beadwork.
- bare ownership — ownership of a piece of property without the right to use and derive profit from that property
- barometrograph — barograph.
- battery backup — A battery backup is a system in some power supplies that switches between a main power source and a battery.
- beauty parlour — A beauty parlour is a place where women can go to have beauty treatments, for example to have their hair, nails or make-up done.
- beggar's opera — a ballad opera (1728) with text by John Gay and music arranged by John Pepusch.
- benday process — a process for adding tone or shading, as in reproducing drawings, by the overlay on the plate of patterns, as of dots
- beta-endorphin — a potent endorphin released by the anterior pituitary gland in response to pain, trauma, exercise, or other forms of stress.
- beveridge plan — the plan for comprehensive social insurance, proposed by Sir William Beveridge in Great Britain in 1941.
- beyond compare — If you describe something as beyond compare, you mean that it is extremely good or extremely great.
- biceps brachii — See under biceps.
- bidding prayer — the formal petitionary prayer, said especially in the Anglican Church immediately before the sermon.
- binary package — (software) An archive file that contains all files and directories that must be installed in order to make a working installation of the program(s) included in the package, and the maintainer scripts necessary for the installation. A binary package is usually specific to a certain platform, in contrast to a source package.
- black panthers — (in the US) a militant Black political party founded in 1965 to end the political dominance of White people
- blepharoplasty — cosmetic surgery performed on the eyelid
- bletchley park — the Buckinghamshire estate which was the centre of British code-breaking operations during World War II
- blister-packed — presented in a blister pack
- blotting paper — Blotting paper is thick soft paper that you use for soaking up and drying ink on a piece of paper.
- body corporate — a group of persons incorporated to carry out a specific enterprise
- bone porcelain — bone china.
- bow and scrape — to behave in an excessively deferential or obsequious way
- brachycephalic — having a head nearly as broad from side to side as from front to back, esp one with a cephalic index over 80
- bread poultice — a poultice made from breadcrumbs
- break-up value — the value of an organization assuming that it will not continue to trade
- breaking point — If something or someone has reached breaking point, they have so many problems or difficulties that they can no longer cope with them, and may soon collapse or be unable to continue.
- breast implant — an object such as a sachet filled with gel introduced surgically into a woman's breast to enlarge it