15-letter words containing b, s, c
- bear comparison — to be sufficiently similar in class or range to be compared with (something else), esp favourably
- béarnaise sauce — a creamy sauce, esp. for meat or fish, made of butter and egg yolks and flavored with wine, vinegar, shallots, and herbs
- beginner's luck — the initial good fortune or success commonly supposed to come to a person who has recently taken up a new pursuit, as a sport or game: Catching a large trout the first time you go fishing is simply beginner's luck.
- belt-and-braces — providing double security, in case one security measure should fail
- ben day process — a method of adding texture, shading, or detail to line drawings by overlaying a transparent sheet of dots or any other pattern during platemaking
- bench scientist — a scientist who does experiments in a laboratory
- benefit society — an organization which, by means of dues, secures for its members certain benefits, such as life insurance, hospitalization, etc.
- benefits agency — an agency that handles the payment of benefits
- berenice's hair — the constellation Coma Berenices
- bergius process — a method of hydrogenation formerly used with coal to produce an oil similar to petroleum.
- berkeley castle — a castle in Gloucestershire: scene of the murder of Edward II in 1327
- bessel function — one of several transcendental functions, usually represented as power series, that are solutions to a group of related differential equations.
- best-ball match — a match, scored by holes, in which one player competing against two or more others must score lower than the lowest scoring opponent to win a hole.
- beta conversion — (theory) A term from lambda-calculus for beta reduction or beta abstraction.
- big sandy creek — a river in central Colorado, flowing NE and SE to the Arkansas River near Lamar: site of the 1864 Sand Creek Massacre. 200 miles (322 km) long.
- bioastronautics — the study of the effects of space flight on living organisms
- biodestructible — biodegradable
- biogasification — the conversion of organic matter into biogas.
- biogeochemistry — the science of biological, chemical, and geological aspects of the environment
- bioluminescence — the production of light by living organisms as a result of the oxidation of a light-producing substance (luciferin) by the enzyme luciferase: occurs in many marine organisms, insects such as the firefly, etc
- biopsychologist — a field of psychology that deals with the effects of biological factors on behavior.
- biostatistician — someone who studies or works professionally in the field of biostatistics
- biscuit tortoni — an individual portion of tortoni, frozen and served in a small cup, often topped with ground almonds.
- bishop auckland — a town in N England, in central Durham: seat of the bishops of Durham since the 12th century: light industries. Pop: 24 764 (2001)
- bits and pieces — You can use bits and pieces or bits and bobs to refer to a collection of different things.
- bits per second — (communications, unit) (bps, b/s) The unit in which data rate is measured. For example, a modem's data rate is usually measured in kilobits per second. In 1996, the maximum modem speed for use on the PSTN was 33.6 kbps, rising to 56 kbps in 1997. Note that kilo- (k), mega- (M), etc. in data rates denote powers of 1000, not 1024.
- bituminous coal — a soft black coal, rich in volatile hydrocarbons, that burns with a smoky yellow flame. Fixed carbon content: 46–86 per cent; calorific value: 1.93 × 107 – 3.63 × 107 J/kg
- black mountains — a mountain range running from N Monmouthshire and SE Powys (Wales) to SW Herefordshire (England). Highest peak: Waun Fach, 811 m (2660 ft)
- black raspberry — a plant, Rubus occidentalis, of E North America, that has black berry-like fruits
- black sea bream — a sparid fish, Spondyliosoma cantharus, found in N Europe and the Mediterranean
- black september — a Palestinian Terrorist group, responsible for the assassinations of Israeli athletes at the Olympic Games at Munich in 1972
- black snakeroot — a tall bugbane, Cimicifuga racemosa, of the buttercup family, of eastern North America, having thin, tapering, toothed or deeply cut leaflets and branched clusters of small, white flowers.
- blackberry bush — a bush on which blackberries grow
- blagoveshchensk — a city and port in E Russia, in Siberia on the Amur River. Pop: 222 000 (2005 est)
- blanc de blancs — white wine, esp. champagne, made from white grapes
- blast injection — the injection of liquid fuel directly into the cylinder of an internal-combustion engine using a blast of high-pressure air to atomize the spray of fuel
- blocked records — (storage) Several records written as a contiguous block on magnetic tape so that they may be accessed in a single I/O operation. Blocking increases the amount of data that may be stored on a tape because there are fewer inter-block gaps. It requires that the tape drive or processor have a sufficiently large buffer to store the whole block.
- blood corpuscle — one of the cells in the blood
- bloody butchers — a hardy plant, Trillium sessile, common from New York to Georgia and westward, having stalkless, purple or green flowers.
- blow one's cool — (of the wind or air) to be in motion.
- blow one's cork — to lose one's temper; become enraged
- blueback salmon — sockeye salmon.
- boa constrictor — A boa constrictor is a large snake that kills animals by wrapping itself round their bodies and squeezing them to death. Boa constrictors are found mainly in South and Central America and the West Indies.
- boarding school — A boarding school is a school which some or all of the pupils live in during the school term. Compare day school.
- book of changes — an ancient Chinese book of divination, in which 64 pairs of trigrams are shown with various interpretations.
- boom-bust cycle — A boom-bust cycle is a series of events in which a rapid increase in business activity in the economy is followed by a rapid decrease in business activity, and this process is repeated again and again.
- booster cushion — an extra seat or cushion placed on an existing seat for a child to sit on in a car
- borderline case — a person or thing that is not clearly classifiable as something
- borrower's card — a card issued by a library to individuals or organizations entitling them or their representatives to borrow materials.
- borscht circuit — summer resort hotels in the Catskills and White Mountains, where entertainment is provided for the guests