14-letter words containing h
- autocoprophagy — the consumption of one's own faeces
- autoradiograph — a photograph showing the distribution of a radioactive substance in a specimen. The photographic plate is exposed by radiation from the specimen
- autotypography — a process in which drawings are executed on gelatin before being impressed on a soft metal plate to allow for printing
- avalanche lily — a wildflower (Erythronium montanum) of the lily family, native to the mountain meadows of Washington and Oregon and blooming in June among the melting snowbanks
- avalanche wind — the wind that is created in front of an avalanche.
- azidothymidine — an antiretroviral drug used to treat HIV/AIDS
- azimuth circle — a device for measuring azimuths, consisting of a graduated ring equipped with a sighting vane on each side, which fits concentrically over a compass.
- babies'-breath — baby's breath
- bachelor chest — a chest of drawers, esp., one for men's shirts, sweaters, underwear, etc.
- bachelor party — A bachelor party is a party for a man who is getting married very soon, to which only men are invited.
- back and forth — If someone moves back and forth, they repeatedly move in one direction and then in the opposite direction.
- back scratcher — a long-handled device for scratching one's own back.
- back-and-forth — backward and forward; side to side; to and fro: a back-and-forth shuttling of buses to the stadium; the back-and-forth movement of a clock's pendulum.
- backflap hinge — Building Trades. flap (def 20a).
- backhandedness — The quality of being backhanded; the use of indirect tactics.
- backscratching — a long-handled device for scratching one's own back.
- backside cache — (hardware, processor) An implementation of secondary cache memory that allows it to be directly accessed by the CPU. Backside cache is used by Apple Computers, Inc. in their PowerPC G3 processor. Previous PowerPC processors used the system bus to access both secondary cache and main memory. In the PowerPC G3 a dedicated bus handles only CPU/cache transactions. This bus can operate faster than the system bus thus improving the overall performance of the processor. The term apparently derives from the relocation of the secondary cache from the motherboard to the processor card itself, i.e. on the backside of the processor card.
- bacteriophages — Plural form of bacteriophage.
- bahr el ghazal — a river in SW Sudan, flowing E to contribute to headwaters of the White Nile. About 500 miles (805 km) long.
- balance weight — a weight used in machines to counterbalance a part, as of a crankshaft
- ball and chain — (formerly) a heavy iron ball attached to a chain and fastened to a prisoner
- ball lightning — a luminous electrically charged ball occasionally seen during electrical storms
- ball-and-chain — a heavy iron ball fastened by a chain to a prisoner's leg.
- baltimore chop — a batted ball that takes a high bounce upon hitting the ground on or immediately in front of home plate, often enabling the batter to reach first base safely.
- ban-the-bomber — a person who vigorously advocates banning the development or use of nuclear weapons.
- banach algebra — (mathematics) An algebra in which the vector space is a Banach space.
- bang to rights — caught red-handed
- banker's check — cashier's check.
- barbados earth — a diatomaceous marl found in Barbados
- bare ownership — ownership of a piece of property without the right to use and derive profit from that property
- bargain hunter — A bargain hunter is someone who is looking for goods that are value for money, usually because they are on sale at a lower price than normal.
- barium-hydrate — Also called calcined baryta, barium oxide, barium monoxide, barium protoxide. a white or yellowish-white poisonous solid, BaO, highly reactive with water: used chiefly as a dehydrating agent and in the manufacture of glass.
- bark chippings — small pieces of tree bark used chiefly for pathways in gardens or woodland
- barometrograph — barograph.
- barrel shifter — (hardware) A hardware device that can shift or rotate a data word by any number of bits in a single operation. It is implemented like a multiplexor, each output can be connected to any input depending on the shift distance.
- barrel-chested — A barrel-chested man has a large, rounded chest.
- barrier method — Barrier methods of contraception involve the use of condoms, diaphragms, or other devices that physically prevent the sperm from reaching the egg.
- basotho-qwaqwa — (formerly) a Bantustan in South Africa, in the Orange Free State; the only Bantustan without exclaves: abolished in 1993
- bass saxophone — a large saxophone of low range, usually supported on a stand while being played.
- basting thread — inexpensive, loosely twisted thread that can be easily pulled out when permanent stitching is in place
- bat the breeze — a wind or current of air, especially a light or moderate one.
- batement light — a compartment of a window with tracery, the bottom of which is formed by the arched head of a compartment or compartments below.
- bathing beauty — an attractive girl in a swimming costume
- bathing trunks — Bathing trunks are shorts that a man wears when he goes swimming.
- bathygraphical — (of a maps) representing the contours of the seabed
- batrachophobia — fear of amphibians
- batrachophobic — relating to the fear of toads and frogs
- batting helmet — a rigid plastic cap with a sidepiece extending down over the ear, worn for protection while batting
- bayes' theorem — the fundamental result which expresses the conditional probability P(E/A) of an event E given an event A as P(A/E).P(E)/P(A); more generally, where En is one of a set of values Ei which partition the sample space, P(En/A) = P(A/En)P(En)/Σ P(A/Ei)P(Ei). This enables prior estimates of probability to be continually revised in the light of observations
- bayonet charge — a charge by riflemen with fixed bayonets