15-letter words containing a, p, e
- backup software — (tool, software) Software for doing a backup, often included as part of the operating system. Backup software should provide ways to specify what files get backed up and to where. It may include its own scheduling function to automate the procedure or, preferably, work with generic scheduling facilities. It may include facilities for managing the backup media (e.g. maintaining an index of tapes) and for restoring files from backups. Examples are Unix's dump command and Windows's ntbackup.
- bacteriophagous — Pertaining to the predation and consumption of bacterium.
- bad housekeeper — a person who is not an efficient and thrifty domestic manager
- balloon payment — a large payment that concludes a series of smaller payments, for example in order to repay a loan
- ballpark figure — approximate number
- ballpeen hammer — a hammer that has one end of its head shaped in a hemisphere for beating metal, etc
- 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
- banana republic — Small, poor countries that are politically unstable are sometimes referred to as banana republics.
- 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.
- bank acceptance — a bill of exchange or draft drawn on and endorsed by a bank
- baptism of fire — If someone who has just begun a new job has a baptism of fire, they immediately have to cope with very many severe difficulties and obstacles.
- barium peroxide — a gray-white powder, BaO2, used as a bleach and in making hydrogen peroxide
- barium sulphate — a white insoluble fine dense powder, used as a pigment, as a filler for paper, rubber, etc, and in barium meals. Formula: BaSO4
- barothermograph — an automatic instrument for recording pressure and temperature.
- basses-pyrenees — former name of Pyrénées-Atlantiques.
- battleship gray — a subdued bluish gray.
- bay of campeche — the SW part of the Gulf of Mexico
- bayeux tapestry — an 11th- or 12th-century embroidery in Bayeux, nearly 70.5 m (231 ft) long by 50 cm (20 inches) high, depicting the Norman conquest of England
- be a wake-up to — to be fully alert to (a person, thing, action, etc)
- beam-power tube — a vacuum tube in which the stream of electrons flowing to the plate is focused by the action of a set of auxiliary, charged elements, giving an increase in output power.
- bear comparison — to be sufficiently similar in class or range to be compared with (something else), esp favourably
- beat oneself up — to reproach oneself
- beefsteak plant — an Asian plant, Perilla frutescens crispa, with aromatic red or green leaves which are used in cooking: family Lamiaceae
- beet leafhopper — a small leafhopper (Circulifer tenellus) that transmits a very destructive virus to sugar beets
- ben day process — a method of adding texture, shading, or detail to line drawings by overlaying a transparent sheet of dots or any other pattern during platemaking
- benefit payment — a payment of money by the government to people who are ill, unemployed, poor or who have children
- beyond the pale — If you think that someone's actions or behaviour are not acceptable, you can say that they are beyond the pale.
- bias (ply) tire — a motor vehicle tire having a foundation of plies of rubberized cords in a crisscross pattern of lines diagonal to the center line of the tread
- biblia pauperum — any of the picture books illustrating Biblical events and usually containing a short text, used chiefly in the Middle Ages for purposes of religious instruction.
- bipartite graph — complete graph
- birch partridge — ruffed grouse
- bird of passage — If you refer to someone as a bird of passage, you mean that they are staying in a place for a short time before going to another place.
- bit-mapped font — a computer font whose characters are held in memory as series of dots.
- bitmapped image — a computer image that is held in memory as a series of colored dots in a grid, each dot represented by one or more bits.
- bits and pieces — You can use bits and pieces or bits and bobs to refer to a collection of different things.
- black operation — a covert and undocumented military operation
- black raspberry — a plant, Rubus occidentalis, of E North America, that has black berry-like fruits
- black september — a Palestinian Terrorist group, responsible for the assassinations of Israeli athletes at the Olympic Games at Munich in 1972
- bladder campion — a European caryophyllaceous plant, Silene vulgaris, having white flowers with an inflated calyx
- blasphemousness — the quality of being blasphemous
- blasting powder — a form of gunpowder made with sodium nitrate instead of saltpeter, used chiefly for blasting rock, ore, etc.
- blenheim palace — a palace in Woodstock in Oxfordshire: built (1705–22) by Sir John Vanbrugh for the 1st Duke of Marlborough as a reward from the nation for his victory at Blenheim; gardens laid out by Henry Wise and Capability Brown; birthplace of Sir Winston Churchill (1874)
- board of parole — an agency that determines which prisoners are to be released on parole
- boiled potatoes — potatoes, usually peeled, cooked in boiling water
- bouillotte lamp — a table lamp of the 18th century, having two or three adjustable candle brackets and a common shade sliding on a central shaft.
- bowel complaint — bowel disease or condition
- box the compass — to name the compass points in order
- brachial plexus — a network of nerves in the armpits and neck, innervating the shoulders, arms, and hands.
- brachiocephalic — of, relating to, or supplying the arm and head