15-letter words containing i, b, e
- bit-mapped font — a computer font whose characters are held in memory as series of dots.
- bite the bullet — to face up to (pain, trouble, etc) with fortitude; be stoical
- biting housefly — a two-winged fly, Stomoxys calcitrans, having the mouthparts adapted for biting, and commonly a household and stable pest.
- bitmapped image — a computer image that is held in memory as a series of colored dots in a grid, each dot represented by one or more bits.
- 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.
- bittersweetness — the quality of being bittersweet
- black and white — In a black and white photograph or film, everything is shown in black, white, and grey.
- black guillemot — a common guillemot, Cepphus grylle: its summer plumage is black with white wing patches and its winter plumage white with greyish wings
- black operation — a covert and undocumented military operation
- black-and-white — displaying only black and white tones; without color, as a picture or chart: a black-and-white photograph.
- blackberry lily — an ornamental Chinese iridaceous plant, Belamcanda chinensis, that has red-spotted orange flowers and clusters of black seeds that resemble blackberries
- bladder campion — a European caryophyllaceous plant, Silene vulgaris, having white flowers with an inflated calyx
- blank cartridge — a cartridge containing powder but no bullet: used in battle practice or as a signal
- 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
- blasting powder — a form of gunpowder made with sodium nitrate instead of saltpeter, used chiefly for blasting rock, ore, etc.
- blended whiskey — whiskey that is a blend of straight whiskey and neutral spirits or of two or more straight whiskeys
- blending center — A blending center is a place for mixing fluids, gases, and powders.
- blenheim orange — a type of apple tree bearing gold-coloured apples
- blenheim palace — a palace in Woodstock in Oxfordshire: built (1705–22) by Sir John Vanbrugh for the 1st Duke of Marlborough as a reward from the nation for his victory at Blenheim; gardens laid out by Henry Wise and Capability Brown; birthplace of Sir Winston Churchill (1874)
- blessed trinity — Trinity (def 1).
- bloodguiltiness — guilty of murder or bloodshed.
- blow one's mind — (in a human or other conscious being) the element, part, substance, or process that reasons, thinks, feels, wills, perceives, judges, etc.: the processes of the human mind.
- bo diddley beat — a type of syncopated Black rhythm, frequently used in rock music
- board-certified — A doctor who is board-certified has passed tests and meets the standards of a board of specialists in their area of medicine.
- body mass index — A person's body mass index is a measurement that represents the relationship between their weight and their height.
- bohemia-moravia — a former German protectorate including Bohemia and Moravia, 1939–45.
- bohemian forest — a mountain range between the SW Czech Republic and SE Germany. Highest peak: Arber, 1457 m (4780 ft)
- boil-in-the-bag — (of food) able to be boiled in a sealed bag until ready to eat
- boiled dressing — a cooked salad dressing thickened with egg yolks and often containing mustard.
- boiled potatoes — potatoes, usually peeled, cooked in boiling water
- bone conduction — the transmission of sound vibrations to the internal ear through the cranial bones (opposed to air conduction).
- booster cushion — an extra seat or cushion placed on an existing seat for a child to sit on in a car
- border incident — an incident, usually fighting, on a border between countries
- borderline case — a person or thing that is not clearly classifiable as something
- borough-english — (until 1925) a custom in certain English boroughs whereby the youngest son inherited land to the exclusion of his older brothers
- boston marriage — (especially in 19th-century New England) an intimate friendship between two women often maintaining a household together.
- bottled in bond — stored in bonded warehouses for a stated length of time before being bottled, as some whiskey
- bouillotte lamp — a table lamp of the 18th century, having two or three adjustable candle brackets and a common shade sliding on a central shaft.
- boustrophedonic — of or relating to lines written in opposite directions
- bowel complaint — bowel disease or condition
- boxer rebellion — a member of a Chinese secret society that carried on an unsuccessful uprising, 1898–1900 (Boxer Rebellion) principally against foreigners, culminating in a siege of foreign legations in Peking that was put down by an international expeditionary force.
- brachial plexus — a network of nerves in the armpits and neck, innervating the shoulders, arms, and hands.
- brachiocephalic — of, relating to, or supplying the arm and head
- brachistochrone — the curve between two points through which a body moves under the force of gravity in a shorter time than for any other curve; the path of quickest descent
- brackett series — a series of lines in the infrared spectrum of hydrogen.
- braille display — (hardware) (Or "refreshable braille display", "refreshable display") An electromechanical device that renders braille with tiny, independently controlled pins used to represent the state of dots in braille cells. Each pin, in its "on" state, raises above the top of its hole in the screen; in its "off" state, it drops below the top of its hole. Older systems used tiny solenoids to control the state of the pins; modern systems are piezoelectric. Typical dimensions of a braille display are 1 line of 40 cells, each cell of two-by-eight dots.
- braille printer — (printer) (Or "(Braille) embosser") A printer, necessarily an impact printer, that renders text as Braille. Blind users call other printers ink printers.
- branchial cleft — Zoology. one of a series of slitlike openings in the walls of the pharynx between the branchial arches of fishes and aquatic amphibians through which water passes from the pharynx to the exterior.
- branching rules — rules that are used to break down a complex problem into several smaller problems