17-letter words containing c, a, n, t
- avogadro constant — the number of atoms or molecules in a mole of a substance
- bachelor's button — any of several plants of a genus (Centaurea) of the composite family, that have scaly, vase-shaped bracts below the white, pink, or blue flowers; esp., the cornflower and knapweed
- bachelor's-button — any of various plants with round flower heads, especially the cornflower.
- back on the rails — If something is back on the rails, it is beginning to be successful again after a period when it almost failed.
- background report — a report on someone or something that sheds light on their background, esp a report on the background of a person convicted of a crime before they are sentenced by a judge
- bacteriorhodopsin — a purple protein containing retinal and found in the plasma membrane of certain bacteria (genus Halobacterium): it directly supplies electrochemical energy from sunlight
- balance of nature — the stable state in which natural communities of animals and plants exist, maintained by adaptation, competition, and other interactions between members of the communit ies and their nonliving environment
- balance of terror — military deterrence based on the possession of weapons of mass destruction by opponents in a conflict
- balance the books — do accounting
- balanced literacy — a method of teaching reading in which phonics and whole language approaches are both used to maximize student learning.
- balanced sentence — a sentence consisting of two or more clauses that are parallel in structure.
- bald-faced hornet — any large, stinging paper wasp of the family Vespidae, as Vespa crabro (giant hornet) introduced into the U.S. from Europe, or Vespula maculata (bald-faced hornet or white-faced hornet) of North America.
- bankruptcy estate — all of the interests that a debtor has at the start of a bankruptcy case
- barkhausen effect — the phenomenon of short, sudden changes in the magnetism of a ferromagnetic substance occurring when the intensity of the magnetizing field is continuously altered.
- basic proposition — protocol (def 6).
- beat to the punch — to be quicker than (another) in doing something, as in striking a blow
- benjamin-constant — Henri Benjamin [ahn-ree ban-zha-man] /ɑ̃ˈri bɛ̃ ʒaˈmɛ̃/ (Show IPA), (Benjamin Constant) 1767–1830, French statesman and author, born in Switzerland.
- binet-simon scale — a test comprising questions and tasks, used to determine the mental age of subjects, usually children
- biological parent — a parent who has conceived (biological mother) or sired (biological father) rather than adopted a child and whose genes are therefore transmitted to the child.
- black nationalism — a movement advocating the establishment of a separate black nation within the U.S.
- black-box testing — functional testing
- blackcurrant bush — a bush of the blackcurrant plant
- blackout curtains — thick, lined curtains designed to shut out all daylight and keep a room in complete darkness
- bland-allison act — an act of Congress (1878) requiring the federal government to purchase at the market price from two to four million dollars' worth of silver monthly for conversion into silver dollars containing 16 times more silver per coin than gold in dollar coins of gold.
- blessed sacrament — the consecrated elements of the Eucharist
- block association — an association for the residents of a particular block in a neighbourhood to discuss and act on matters of common concern
- blocking antibody — Immunology. an antibody that partly combines with an antigen and interferes with cell-mediated immunity, thereby preventing an allergic reaction.
- blow hot and cold — to vacillate
- bluegrass country — region in central Ky. where there is much bluegrass
- boatswain's chair — a seat consisting of a short flat board slung from ropes, used to support a person working on the side of a vessel or in its rigging
- body center plate — one of a pair of plates that fit together and support the body of a car on a truck, while allowing the truck to rotate with respect to the body. One plate (body center plate) is attached to the underside of the car body and the other (truck center plate) is part of the car truck.
- body modification — any method of permanently adorning the body, including tattooing and piercing
- book depreciation — Book depreciation is depreciation in a company's internal financial records that is different from the amount that is used for taxes.
- bouncebackability — the ability to recover after a setback, esp in sport
- branch delay slot — delayed control-transfer
- branch prediction — (processor, algorithm) A technique used in some processors with instruction prefetch to guess whether a conditional branch will be taken or not and prefetch code from the appropriate location. When a branch instruction is executed, its address and that of the next instruction executed (the chosen destination of the branch) are stored in the Branch Target Buffer. This information is used to predict which way the instruction will branch the next time it is executed so that instruction prefetch can continue. When the prediction is correct (and it is over 90% of the time), executing a branch does not cause a pipeline break. Some later CPUs simply prefetch both paths instead of trying to predict which way the branch will go. An extension of the idea of branch prediction is speculative execution.
- bricks and mortar — You can use bricks and mortar to refer to houses and other buildings, especially when they are considered as an investment.
- british cameroons — a former British trust territory of West Africa
- british columbian — of or relating to British Columbia or its inhabitants
- british-cameroons — German Kamerun. a region in W Africa: a German protectorate 1884–1919; divided in 1919 into British and French mandates.
- brocot escapement — a type of anchor escapement.
- brokerage account — A brokerage account is an account with a broker where an investor can buy and sell and hold securities.
- brompton cocktail — an analgesic mixture, usually containing morphine and cocaine and sometimes other narcotic substances in an alcohol solution, administered primarily to advanced cancer patients.
- budgetary control — a system of managing a business by applying a financial value to each forecast activity. Actual performance is subsequently compared with the estimates
- buncher resonator — See under Klystron.
- bureaucratization — to divide an administrative agency or office into bureaus.
- butacaine sulfate — a colorless, crystalline substance, (C18H30N2O2)2·H2SO4, used as a local anesthetic, esp. on mucous membranes
- cache consistency — cache coherency
- caesarean section — A Caesarean or a Caesarean section is an operation in which a baby is lifted out of a woman's womb through an opening cut in her abdomen.
- cafeteria benefit — a fringe benefit chosen by an employee from a range of benefits offered under a cafeteria plan.