16-letter words containing b, l, e, u
- 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
- latent ambiguity — uncertainty that arises when a seemingly clear written instrument is matched against an extrinsic fact, as when a description of something being sold fits two different items.
- leaf-cutting bee — any of the bees of the family Megachilidae that cut circular pieces from leaves or flowers to line their nests.
- lean-burn engine — an engine designed to use a lean mixture of fuel and air in order to reduce petrol consumption and exhaust emissions
- leaps and bounds — You can use in leaps and bounds or by leaps and bounds to emphasize that someone or something is improving or increasing quickly and greatly.
- lesbian cymatium — cyma reversa.
- 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.
- 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
- lightbulb moment — a moment of sudden inspiration, revelation, or recognition
- like gangbusters — a law-enforcement officer who specializes in breaking up organized crime, often by forceful or sensational means.
- limited-stop bus — a bus which only stops at a small number of predetermined stops, rather than on request
- line of business — profession, trade: field
- louise bourgeois — Léon Victor Auguste [ley-awn veek-tawr oh-gyst] /leɪˈɔ̃ vikˈtɔr oʊˈgyst/ (Show IPA), 1851–1925, French statesman: Nobel Peace Prize 1920.
- lumberjack shirt — a thick checked shirt, as worn by lumberjacks
- madame butterfly — an opera (1904) by Giacomo Puccini.
- mahalla el kubra — a city in Egypt, on the Nile delta.
- 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)
- medulloblastomas — Plural form of medulloblastoma.
- montagu's blenny — a small blenny, Coryphoblennius galerita, found among rocks in shallow water
- 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.
- munchen-gladbach — former name of Mönchengladbach.
- 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
- neuroborreliosis — A disorder of the central nervous system caused by a spirochete of the genus Borrelia.
- niche publishing — publishing books that are intended for a very specialized market
- non-attributable — to regard as resulting from a specified cause; consider as caused by something indicated (usually followed by to): She attributed his bad temper to ill health.
- non-quantifiable — to determine, indicate, or express the quantity of.
- non-reproducible — to make a copy, representation, duplicate, or close imitation of: to reproduce a picture.
- nondurable goods — goods that remain usable for, or must be replaced within, a relatively short period of time, as food, apparel, or fabrics
- nubuck (leather) — tanned leather similar to suede, but with the nap on the grain side
- nuclear membrane — the double membrane surrounding the nucleus within a cell.
- nuclear umbrella — a guarantee from a country or state that possesses nuclear weapons to a country that does not that they will defend them
- oblique triangle — any triangle that does not have a right angle (contrasted with right triangle).
- oblique zenithal — a type of map projection in which part of the earth's surface is projected onto a plane tangential to it between the poles and the equator
- ordinary jubilee — the celebration of any of certain anniversaries, as the twenty-fifth (silver jubilee) fiftieth (golden jubilee) or sixtieth or seventy-fifth (diamond jubilee)
- organized labour — labour carried out by workers in trade unions, or the workers themselves
- outboard profile — an exterior side elevation of a vessel, showing all deck structures, rigging, fittings, etc.
- paratuberculosis — Johne's disease.
- pit bull terrier — American Staffordshire terrier.
- planetary nebula — an expanding shell of thin ionized gas that is ejected from and surrounds a hot, dying star of about the same mass as the sun; the gas absorbs ultraviolet radiation from the central star and reemits it as visible light by the process of fluorescence.
- plumber's helper — plunger (def 3).
- pourriture noble — noble rot.
- powerfully built — (of a person, esp a man) big and physically strong, with large muscles
- public ownership — ownership by the state; nationalization
- public relations — (used with a plural verb) the actions of a corporation, store, government, individual, etc., in promoting goodwill between itself and the public, the community, employees, customers, etc.
- publication date — the date on which a book or periodical is or is planned to be published.
- publicity agency — an advertising agency; a firm that gets publicity for people or products