14-letter words containing a, t, o, r
- bamboo network — a network of close-knit Chinese entrepreneurs with large corporate empires in southeast Asia
- bamboo turning — turning of spindles and framing members to simulate the jointing of bamboo.
- ban-the-bomber — a person who vigorously advocates banning the development or use of nuclear weapons.
- bancroft prize — one of a group of annual awards for literary achievement in American history and biography: administered by Columbia University.
- bang to rights — caught red-handed
- barbados earth — a diatomaceous marl found in Barbados
- barbour jacket — a hard-wearing waterproof waxed jacket
- barium bromate — colorless, slightly water-soluble, poisonous crystals, Ba(BrO 3) 2 ⋅H 2 O, used in the preparation of certain bromates.
- barometrically — By means of a barometer.
- barometrograph — barograph.
- barong tagalog — (in the Philippines) a man's long-sleeved formal overblouse, made of fine, sheer fabric, often embroidered.
- barrier method — Barrier methods of contraception involve the use of condoms, diaphragms, or other devices that physically prevent the sperm from reaching the egg.
- basque country — Theregion comprising three provinces in N Spain, on the Bay of Biscay, inhabited by Basques: 2,803 sq mi (7,260 sq km); pop. 2,104,000
- bastard indigo — a bushy shrub, Amorpha fruticosa, of the legume family, native to North America, having elongated clusters of dull purplish or bluish flowers.
- bastardisation — Alternative form of bastardization.
- bastardization — the act of bastardizing
- batrachophobia — fear of amphibians
- batrachophobic — relating to the fear of toads and frogs
- battered woman — See under battered woman syndrome.
- battered-women — the array of physical and psychological injuries exhibited by women (battered women or battered wives) who have been beaten repeatedly or otherwise abused by their partners or spouses.
- bayes' theorem — the fundamental result which expresses the conditional probability P(E/A) of an event E given an event A as P(A/E).P(E)/P(A); more generally, where En is one of a set of values Ei which partition the sample space, P(En/A) = P(A/En)P(En)/Σ P(A/Ei)P(Ei). This enables prior estimates of probability to be continually revised in the light of observations
- bayonet charge — a charge by riflemen with fixed bayonets
- beard-stroking — deep thought
- beaufort scale — an international scale of wind velocities ranging for practical purposes from 0 (calm) to 12 (hurricane force). In the US an extension of the scale, from 13 to 17 for winds over 64 knots, is used
- 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.
- belaya tserkov — city in WC Ukraine: pop. 204,000
- belvoir castle — a castle in Leicestershire, near Grantham (in Lincolnshire): seat of the Dukes of Rutland; rebuilt by James Wyatt in 1816
- bermuda shorts — close-fitting shorts that come down to the knees
- beta geminorum — Pollux
- beta reduction — [lambda-calculus] The application of a lambda abstraction to an argument expression. A copy of the body of the lambda abstraction is made and occurrences of the bound variable being replaced by the argument. E.g. (\ x . x+1) 4 --> 4+1 Beta reduction is the only kind of reduction in the pure lambda-calculus. The opposite of beta reduction is beta abstraction. These are the two kinds of beta conversion. See also name capture.
- beta-endorphin — a potent endorphin released by the anterior pituitary gland in response to pain, trauma, exercise, or other forms of stress.
- betray oneself — to reveal one's true character, intentions, etc
- binary counter — (electronics, hardware) A digital circuit which has a clock input and a number of count outputs which give the number of clock cycles. The output may change either on rising or falling clock edges. The circuit may also have a reset input which sets all outputs to zero when asserted. The counter may be either a synchronous counter or a ripple counter.
- bioaeronautics — the use of aircraft in the discovery, development, and protection of natural and biological resources
- biodegradation — to decay and become absorbed by the environment: toys that will biodegrade when they're discarded.
- bioinformatics — the branch of information science concerned with large databases of biochemical or pharmaceutical information
- bioregionalist — someone who believes in bioregionalism
- bioremediation — the use of plants to extract heavy metals from contaminated soils and water
- bipolarisation — the act of bipolarising
- bipolarization — the action of rendering something bipolar
- bit error rate — A bit error rate is the measure of the number of incorrect bits that can be expected in a specified number of bits in a serial stream.
- black root rot — any of several diseases of plants characterized by black or brown lesions on the root.
- blanket-flower — any composite plant of the genus Gaillardia, having showy heads of yellow or red flowers.
- blepharoplasty — cosmetic surgery performed on the eyelid
- blood relation — A blood relation or blood relative is someone who is related to you by birth rather than by marriage.
- blotting paper — Blotting paper is thick soft paper that you use for soaking up and drying ink on a piece of paper.
- board of trade — (in the United Kingdom) a ministry within the Department of Trade: responsible for the supervision of commerce and the promotion of export trade
- boarding party — group of officers or sailors who board a ship
- boatswain bird — tropic bird.
- body corporate — a group of persons incorporated to carry out a specific enterprise