12-letter words containing i, n
- birth parent — a biological mother (birth mother) or biological father (birth father) a biological parent.
- biscay green — a yellowish green.
- biscayne bay — an inlet of the Atlantic Ocean, on the SE coast of Florida, separating the cities of Miami and Miami Beach.
- bismuthinite — a grey mineral consisting of bismuth sulphide in orthorhombic crystalline form. It occurs in veins associated with tin, copper, silver, lead, etc, and is a source of bismuth. Formula: Bi2S3
- bit diddling — bit bashing
- bit stuffing — (protocol) A protocol which guarantees the receiver of synchronous data can recover the sender's clock. When the data stream sent contains a large number of adjacent bits which cause no transition of the signal, the receiver cannot adjust its clock to maintain proper synchronised reception. To eliminate the possibility of such a pathological case, when a preset number of transitionless bits have been transmitted, a bit which does cause a transition is "stuffed" (transmitted) by the sender. The receiver follows the same protocol and removes the stuffed bit after the specified number of transitionless bits, but can use the stuffed bit to recover the sender's clock. The advantage of bit stuffing is that only a bit (not a byte) is inserted in the data stream, and that only when the content of the data stream fails to provide a timing signal to the receiver. Thus very nearly 100% of the bits transported are useful data. In contrast, asynchronous transmission of data "throws away" a start bit and one or more stop bits for each data byte sent.
- biting louse — any wingless insect of the order Mallophaga, such as the chicken louse: external parasites of birds and mammals with biting mouthparts
- biting mania — an epidemic in which people have a compulsion to bite others, as in 15th-century Germany, Italy, and the Netherlands.
- biting midge — any small fragile dipterous fly of the family Ceratopogonidae, most of which suck the blood of mammals, birds, or other insects
- biting point — (in driving) the point at which the plates of the clutch connect as the clutch pedal is released
- biting stage — the second part of the oral phase of psychosexual development, approximately 8 to18 months of age, during which a child has the urge to bite or chew objects.
- bitter lemon — a non-alcoholic, fizzy drink with a lemon flavour
- bitter melon — balsam pear.
- bitter-ender — a person who persists in a hopeless cause; one who will not give in
- biuniqueness — the quality of a one-to-one correspondence
- black heroin — a very potent and addictive form of heroin that is dark-colored.
- black knight — a person or firm that makes an unwelcome takeover bid for a company
- black prince — Edward2 (Prince of Wales)
- blackbirding — a common European thrush, Turdus merula, the male of which is black with a yellow bill.
- blandishment — the act of blandishing; cajolery
- blastulation — the process of blastula formation
- blazing star — a North American liliaceous plant, Chamaelirium luteum, with a long spike of small white flowers
- bletheration — nonsense!
- blimpishness — actions or behaviour akin to those of the fictional character of Colonel Blimp, or the quality of resembling this character
- blind casing — (in a box window frame) a rough framework to which the trim is secured.
- blind corner — a corner where the view of the road ahead is completely obscured or very restricted
- blind flange — a disk for closing the end of a pipe, having holes for bolting it to a flange.
- blind roller — a long ocean swell that rises almost to breaking as it passes over shoals.
- blind stitch — a type of stitch that is visible on one side of the material only
- blind summit — a point on a road where a vehicle approaching the top of a hill or incline cannot see vehicles approaching up the other side of the hill
- blind-emboss — blind-stamp.
- bliss carman — (William) Bliss, 1861–1929, Canadian poet and journalist in the U.S.
- blissfulness — full of, abounding in, enjoying, or conferring bliss.
- blisteringly — causing a blister or blisters.
- block caving — a method of mining a large block of ore by systematically undercutting so the ore will cave. Compare cave (def 5a).
- block island — an island off the coast of and a part of Rhode Island, at the E entrance to Long Island Sound.
- block signal — a fixed railroad signal governing the movements of trains entering and using a given section of track.
- block voting — voting using block votes
- blockbusting — A blockbusting film or book is one that is very successful, usually because it is very exciting.
- bloemfontein — a city in central South Africa: capital of Free State province and judicial capital of the country. Pop: 111 698 (2001)
- blood doping — the illegal practice of removing a quantity of blood from an athlete long before a race and reinjecting it shortly before a race, so boosting oxygenation of the blood
- blood spavin — a disease of the hock joint of horses in which enlargement occurs because of collected fluids (bog spavin) bony growth (bone spavin) or distention of the veins (blood spavin)
- blood typing — the classification of human blood cells to determine compatible blood types as for transfusion or organ transplant
- bloodletting — Bloodletting is violence or killing between groups of people, especially between rival armies.
- bloodstained — Someone or something that is bloodstained is covered with blood.
- bloodsucking — any animal that sucks blood, especially a leech.
- blooming oil — an oil used as a lubricant in fine sandpapering.
- bloomingdale — a town in NE Illinois.
- blossom into — the flower of a plant, especially of one producing an edible fruit.
- blotting-pad — an object to one side of which a piece of blotting paper is attached for blotting text handwritten in ink