16-letter words containing b, e, r, i, c
- chilean firebush — South American shrub with scarlet flowers
- christening robe — a long white dress worn by a baby at his or her christening
- christmas beetle — any of various greenish-gold Australian scarab beetles of the genus Anoplognathus, which are common in summer
- chromatic number — (mathematics) The smallest number of colours necessary to colour the nodes of a graph so that no two adjacent nodes have the same colour. See also: four colour map theorem.
- church invisible — the entire body of Christian believers on earth and in heaven.
- chuvash republic — a constituent republic of W central Russia, in the middle Volga valley: generally low-lying with undulating plains and large areas of forest. Capital: Cheboksary. Pop: 1 313 900 (2002). Area: 18 300 sq km (7064 sq miles)
- cigarette beetle — a small cylindrical beetle, Lasioderma serricorne, that is a pest, especially of dried tobacco.
- circumscriptible — Capable of being circumscribed or limited by bounds.
- city of aberdeen — a council area in NE Scotland, established in 1996. Pop: 206 600 (2003 est). Area: 186 sq km (72 sq miles)
- clarified butter — butter with the water and milk solids removed, used for cooking at high temperatures without burning
- cluster variable — RR Lyrae star.
- combined honours — (in British education) a degree course that includes more than one subject
- come from behind — sport: win from a disadvantaged position
- come/bring alive — If a story or description comes alive, it becomes interesting, lively, or realistic. If someone or something brings it alive, they make it seem more interesting, lively, or realistic.
- commensurability — The quality of being commensurable or commensurate.
- commercial break — A commercial break is the interval during a commercial television programme, or between programmes, during which advertisements are shown.
- committee member — a member of a committee
- complex variable — a variable to which complex numbers may be assigned as value.
- composite number — a positive integer that can be factorized into two or more other positive integers
- concertina table — an extensible table having a hinged double top falling onto a hinged frame that unfolds like an accordion when pulled out.
- congeliturbation — the churning, heaving, and thrusting of soil material due to the action of frost.
- control variable — Also called control. Statistics. a person, group, event, etc., that is used as a constant and unchanging standard of comparison in scientific experimentation. Compare dependent variable (def 2), independent variable (def 2).
- conversion table — a diagram which shows equivalent amounts in different measuring systems
- convertible bond — a bond that can be exchanged for a fixed number of shares of the common stock of the issuing company at the holder's option.
- convertible lens — a lens containing two or more elements that can be used individually or in combination to provide a variety of focal lengths.
- cooperative bank — a cooperative savings institution, chartered and regulated by a state or the federal government, that receives deposits in exchange for shares of ownership and invests its funds chiefly in loans secured by first mortgages on homes.
- counterbalancing — Present participle of counterbalance.
- crossover bodice — a bodice which has one side crossing over the other
- cyanogen bromide — a colorless, slightly water-soluble, poisonous, volatile, crystalline solid, BrCN, used chiefly as a fumigant and a pesticide.
- debating chamber — a room where a legislative assembly holds debates
- deboursification — (jargon) Removal of irrelevant newsgroups from the Newsgroups header of a followup. The term applies particularly to the removal of frivolous groups added by one of the Kooks. See also: sneck.
- decision problem — (theory) A problem with a yes/no answer. Determining whether some potential solution to a question is actually a solution or not. E.g. "Is 43669" a prime number?". This is in contrast to a "search problem" which must find a solution from scratch, e.g. "What is the millionth prime number?". See decidability.
- defective number — a positive number that is greater than the sum of all positive integers that are submultiples of it, as 10, which is greater than the sum of 1, 2, and 5.
- deoxyribonucleic — (genetics) Of or pertaining to deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) or its derivatives.
- derbyshire chair — a chair of the mid-17th century, made of oak, usually without arms, and having a back of two carved rails between square uprights.
- destructibleness — The quality of being destructible.
- dichlorobiphenyl — (organic compound) Either of twelve isomers of the polychlorinated biphenyl containing two chlorine atoms.
- diethyl carbinol — a colorless, liquid isomer of amyl alcohol, (CH3CH2)2CHOH, used in drugs and as a solvent
- dimethylcarbinol — isopropyl alcohol.
- direction number — the component of a vector along a given line; any number proportional to the direction cosines of a given line.
- double centering — a method of extending a survey line by taking the average of two foresights, one with the telescope direct and one with it inverted, made each time by transiting the telescope after a backsight.
- double precision — using twice the normal amount of storage, as two words rather than one, to represent a number.
- duplicate bridge — a form of contract bridge used in tournaments in which contestants play the identical series of deals, with each deal being scored independently, permitting individual scores to be compared.
- eclipsing binary — a variable star whose changes in brightness are caused by periodic eclipses of two stars in a binary system.
- economic embargo — a legal stoppage of commerce, usually taken by one nation or group of nations to harm the economy of another nation or group, often to force a political change
- electric blanket — electrically-heated bedcover
- embarkation card — an official document that allows travellers to leave a country by boarding a ship or plane
- executive member — a member of an executive committee
- experience table — an actuarial table, esp a mortality table based on past statistics
- fibonacci number — a number in the Fibonacci sequence, each of which is the sum of the previous two