16-letter words containing b, a, e, r
- kentucky warbler — a wood warbler, Oporornis formosus, of the U.S., olive-green above, yellow below, and marked with black on the face.
- khakass republic — a constituent republic of S central Russia, formerly in Krasnoyarsk Territory: formed in 1930. Capital: Abakan. Pop: 546 100 (2002). Area: 61 900 sq km (23 855 sq miles)
- knapsack problem — the problem of determining which numbers from a given collection of numbers have been added together to yield a specific sum: used in cryptography to encipher (and sometimes decipher) messages.
- krebs urea cycle — urea cycle.
- labour agreement — a contract between workers and managers setting out working conditions, wages, etc
- labour relations — Labour relations refers to the relationship between employers and employees in industry, and the political decisions and laws that affect it.
- labour-intensive — Labour-intensive industries or methods of making things involve a lot of workers. Compare capital-intensive.
- labrador current — a cold ocean current flowing southwards off the coast of Labrador and meeting the warm Gulf Stream, causing dense fogs off the coast of Newfoundland
- language barrier — difficulty in communication due to language difference
- large-print book — a book where the text is printed in larger text than normal, so as to make it easier to read, esp for the visually impaired
- lean-burn engine — an engine designed to use a lean mixture of fuel and air in order to reduce petrol consumption and exhaust emissions
- leveraged buyout — the purchase of a company with borrowed money, using the company's assets as collateral, and often discharging the debt and realizing a profit by liquidating the company. Abbreviation: LBO.
- libation-bearers — Choëphori.
- liberal democrat — In Britain, a Liberal Democrat is a member of the Liberal Democrat Party.
- liberal unionist — a Liberal who opposed Gladstone's policy of Irish Home Rule in 1886 and after
- library pictures — a caption used to alert viewers that footage being broadcast is from an earlier time and is not happening now
- lick observatory — the astronomical observatory of the University of California, situated on Mount Hamilton, near San Jose, California, and having a 120-inch (3-meter) reflecting telescope and a 36-inch (91-cm) refracting telescope.
- like gangbusters — a law-enforcement officer who specializes in breaking up organized crime, often by forceful or sensational means.
- little brown bat — any of several small to medium-sized common bats of the genera Myotis and Eptesicus, found worldwide in caves, trees, and buildings, including M. lucifugus (little brown bat) and E. fuscus (big brown bat) a widespread North American species.
- lord chamberlain — (in Britain) the chief official of the royal household
- low-carbon steel — steel containing between 0.04 and 0.25 per cent carbon
- lumberjack shirt — a thick checked shirt, as worn by lumberjacks
- machine readable — of or relating to data encoded on an appropriate medium and in a form suitable for processing by computer.
- machine-readable — of or relating to data encoded on an appropriate medium and in a form suitable for processing by computer.
- madame butterfly — an opera (1904) by Giacomo Puccini.
- magnetic bearing — the bearing of a point relative to that of the nearest magnetic pole.
- magnolia warbler — a black and yellow wood warbler, Dendroica magnolia, of North America.
- mahalla el kubra — a city in Egypt, on the Nile delta.
- maitre de ballet — ballet master.
- make a break for — run towards
- man booker prize — an annual prize for a work of Commonwealth or Irish fiction of £50,000, awarded as the Booker Prize from 1969–2002
- man on horseback — a military leader who presents himself as the savior of the country during a period of crisis and either assumes or threatens to assume dictatorial powers.
- manganese bronze — an alloy that is about 55 percent copper, 40 percent zinc, and up to 3.5 percent manganese.
- margaret drabble — Margaret, born 1939, English novelist.
- mari el republic — a constituent republic of W central Russia, in the middle Volga basin. Capital: Yoshkar-Ola. Pop: 728 000 (2002). Area: 23 200 sq km (8955 sq miles)
- marine barometer — a barometer for use on shipboard, especially one mounted on gimbals so as to minimize the effects of the motion of the vessel.
- marine biologist — scientist who studies sea life
- martin van buren — Martin, 1782–1862, 8th president of the U.S. 1837–41.
- mass observation — the study of the social habits of people through observation, interviews, etc
- medal of bravery — a Canadian award for courage
- megakaryoblastic — (cytology) Of or pertaining to a megakaryoblast.
- mesembryanthemum — any of various chiefly Old World plants of the genus Mesembryanthemum, having thick, fleshy leaves and often showy flowers.
- modacrylic fiber — any of various synthetic copolymer textile fibers, as Dynel, containing less than 85 percent but more than 35 percent of acrylonitrile.
- molybdate orange — a pigment consisting of a solid solution of sulfate, molybdate, and chromate compounds of lead.
- mossbauer effect — the phenomenon in which an atom in a crystal undergoes no recoil when emitting a gamma ray, giving all the emitted energy to the gamma ray, resulting in a sharply defined wavelength.
- mountain climber — someone who climbs or walks up mountains
- mulberry harbour — either of two prefabricated floating harbours towed across the English Channel to the French coast for the Allied invasion of Normandy in 1944
- multituberculate — a rodentlike mammal of the extinct order Multituberculata, which lived from the late Jurassic Period to the Oligocene Epoch, reaching the size of a woodchuck and having molars with two or three rows of simple pointed cusps.
- narragansett bay — an inlet of the Atlantic in E Rhode Island. 28 miles (45 km) long.
- nash equilibrium — (in game theory) a stable state of a system involving the interaction of two or more players in which no player can gain by a unilateral change of strategy if the strategies of the other players remain unchanged