16-letter words containing b, u, r, e, a, c
- chilean firebush — South American shrub with scarlet flowers
- 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.
- 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)
- clarified butter — butter with the water and milk solids removed, used for cooking at high temperatures without burning
- cluster variable — RR Lyrae star.
- commensurability — The quality of being commensurable or commensurate.
- congeliturbation — the churning, heaving, and thrusting of soil material due to the action of frost.
- consumer durable — Consumer durables are goods which are expected to last a long time, and are bought infrequently.
- counterbalancing — Present participle of counterbalance.
- cracked up to be — alleged or believed to be
- cumberland sauce — a cold sauce made from orange and lemon juice, port, and redcurrant jelly, served with ham, game, or other meat
- 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.
- debut appearance — debut
- drumhead cabbage — acommon type of cabbage with tightly packed leaves and a rounded form with a slightly flattened top
- 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.
- fibonacci number — a number in the Fibonacci sequence, each of which is the sum of the previous two
- forbush decrease — the sudden decrease in the intensity of cosmic rays after an increase in solar activity.
- globular cluster — a comparatively older, spherically symmetrical, compact group of up to a million old stars, held together by mutual gravitation, that are located in the galactic halo and move in giant and highly eccentric orbits around the galactic center.
- ground substance — Also called matrix. the homogeneous substance in which the fibers and cells of connective tissue are embedded.
- growth substance — any substance, produced naturally by a plant or manufactured commercially, that, in very low concentrations, affects plant growth; a plant hormone
- incommensurables — Plural form of incommensurable.
- insurance broker — person who sells insurance policies
- 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)
- krebs urea cycle — urea cycle.
- 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
- library pictures — a caption used to alert viewers that footage being broadcast is from an earlier time and is not happening now
- lumberjack shirt — a thick checked shirt, as worn by lumberjacks
- 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)
- 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
- 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.
- nitrous bacteria — bacteria that convert ammonia to nitrites in the soil
- non-bureaucratic — of, relating to, or characteristic of a bureaucrat or a bureaucracy; arbitrary and routine.
- 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
- numbered account — a bank account whose owner is identified by a number for the purpose of preserving anonymity.
- onboard computer — onboard a vehicle, ship, plane, train or spacecraft
- paratuberculosis — Johne's disease.
- 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.
- rambunctiousness — difficult to control or handle; wildly boisterous: a rambunctious child.
- reaction turbine — a turbine driven by the reactive force of a fluid passing through the rotor blades.
- rectus abdominis — a long flat muscle that extends along the whole length of both sides of the abdomen. It flexes the vertebral column, particularly the lumbar portion; it also tenses the anterior abdominal wall and assists in compressing the abdominal contents
- republican party — one of the two major political parties in the U.S.: originated 1854–56.
- republican river — a river flowing E from E Colorado through Nebraska and Kansas into the Kansas River. 422 miles (680 km) long.
- reserve buoyancy — the difference between the volume of a hull below the designed waterline and the volume of the hull below the lowest opening incapable of being made watertight.
- ribonucleic acid — RNA.
- rich tea biscuit — any of various semisweet biscuits
- right about face — Military. a command, given to a soldier or soldiers at attention, to turn the body about toward the right so as to face in the opposite direction. the act of so turning in a prescribed military manner.