16-letter words containing b, i, o, m
- bohemian waxwing — any of several songbirds of the family Bombycillidae, having a showy crest and certain feathers tipped with a red, waxy material, as Bombycilla garrulus (Bohemian waxwing) of the Northern Hemisphere.
- bomb calorimeter — a device for determining heats of combustion by igniting a sample in a high pressure of oxygen in a sealed vessel and measuring the resulting rise in temperature: used for measuring the calorific value of foods
- bombing campaign — a concerted, intensive and prolonged bombing of a target
- bonhomme richard — the flagship of John Paul Jones.
- bordeaux mixture — a fungicide consisting of a solution of equal quantities of copper sulphate and quicklime
- bornholm disease — an epidemic virus infection characterized by pain round the base of the chest
- boston cream pie — a cake of two layers with icing and a creamy filling
- braille embosser — Braille printer
- brick-and-mortar — pertaining to conventional stores, businesses, etc., having physical buildings and facilities, as opposed to Internet or remote services.
- british columbia — a province of W Canada, on the Pacific coast: largely mountainous with extensive forests, rich mineral resources, and important fisheries. Capital: Victoria. Pop: 4 400 057 (2011 est). Area: 930 532 sq km (359 279 sq miles)
- brompton mixture — a mixture of narcotics, tranquilizers, and alcohol, used to kill pain for terminally ill patients
- bronchial asthma — asthma.
- bronchopneumonia — inflammation of the lungs, originating in the bronchioles
- brood parasitism — a type of parasitism in which a bird (brood parasite), as a cowbird or European cuckoo, lays and abandons its eggs in the nest of another species
- broomrape family — the plant family Orobanchaceae, characterized by scaly, leafless herbaceous plants that are parasitic on the roots of other plants and have irregular flowers and many-seeded capsular fruit, and including beechdrops, broomrape, and squawroot.
- broomstick skirt — a full, gathered or pleated skirt that has characteristic tiny creases obtained by wetting the skirt and winding it around a broomstick to dry.
- buckthorn family — the plant family Rhamnaceae, characterized by shrubs and trees having alternate, simple leaves, clusters of small flowers, and fruit in the form of a drupe or capsule, and including the buckthorn, cascara, and New Jersey tea.
- burkitt lymphoma — a rare type of tumour of the white blood cells, occurring mainly in Africa and associated with infection by Epstein-Barr virus
- busman's holiday — If you have a holiday, but spend it doing something similar to your usual work, you can refer to it as a busman's holiday.
- chomp at the bit — champ at the bit (see phrase under champ1)
- 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.
- circumambulation — The act of walking around something in a circle, especially for a ritual purpose.
- collaborationism — The act of collaborating, especially with an enemy.
- columbia heights — a city in SE Minnesota, near Minneapolis.
- combination door — an outside door having a frame into which different types of panels can be inserted, as a screen for summer or storm sash for winter.
- combination drug — a medication comprised of set dosages of two or more separate drugs.
- combination last — a shoe last that has a narrower heel or instep than the standard last.
- combination lock — A combination lock is a lock which can only be opened by turning a dial or a number of dials according to a particular series of letters or numbers.
- combination room — (at Cambridge University) a common room
- combination shot — a shot in pool in which the cue ball strikes at least one object ball before contact is made with the ball to be pocketed.
- combination skin — facial skin that is dry in some areas and greasy in others
- combined honours — (in British education) a degree course that includes more than one subject
- combining weight — the atomic weight of an atom or radical divided by its valence.
- 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
- common spoonbill — a wading bird of warm regions, Platalea leucorodia, having a long horizontally flattened bill: family Threskiornithidae, order Ciconiiformes
- communicableness — The state or quality of being communicable.
- companionability — The state of being companionable, suitability for companionship.
- 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
- contemptibleness — The state or quality of being contemptible.
- copyright symbol — (character, legal) "©" The internationally recognised symbol required to introduce a copyright notice, a letter C with a circle around it. This can be encoded in ISO 8859-1 as character code decimal 169, hexadecimal A9, in HTML as ©, © or ©. A "c" in parentheses: "(c)" is sometimes used in documents stored in a coded character set such as ASCII that does not include the C in a circle, but this has no legal meaning.
- cyanogen bromide — a colorless, slightly water-soluble, poisonous, volatile, crystalline solid, BrCN, used chiefly as a fumigant and a pesticide.
- 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.
- demolition derby — a competition in which contestants drive old cars into each other until there is only one car left running
- deoxyhaemoglobin — (biochemistry) The form of haemoglobin that has released its oxygen.
- diamondback moth — a small moth Plutella xylostella that has diamond-shaped markings on the underside of its front wings that are visible when the wings are folded