15-letter words containing i, r, a, t, o, n
- apprentice work — work done when young and a novice
- appropinquation — the action of approaching
- appropriateness — suitable or fitting for a particular purpose, person, occasion, etc.: an appropriate example; an appropriate dress.
- approval rating — approval of a politician as shown by opinion polls
- approximateness — The quality of being approximate.
- arbitration bar — a bar of cast iron used as a sample for the batch to which it belongs.
- archaeobotanist — A person engaged in archaeobotany.
- architectonical — Alternative form of architectonic.
- aristotelianism — a philosophical tradition based on the wide-ranging belief system of Aristotle
- arms inspection — the official checking of a country's weapons and other military equipment, usually to check that international agreements have been respected
- arrondissements — Plural form of arrondissement.
- arterialization — to convert (venous blood) into arterial blood by the action of oxygen in the lungs.
- asian shorthair — a generic term for a group of breeds of short-haired cat of Burmese type, including the Bombay
- astrodynamicist — a person who studies astrodynamics
- astronautically — In an astronautic way.
- astronavigation — celestial navigation
- at short notice — Notice is used in expressions such as 'at short notice', 'at a moment's notice' or 'at twenty-four hours' notice', to indicate that something can or must be done within a short period of time.
- atrabiliousness — The state or quality of being characterized by melancholy or glumness.
- auditor general — (in Canada) a federal official responsible for auditing government departments and making an annual report
- autocorrelation — the condition occurring when successive items in a series are correlated so that their covariance is not zero and they are not independent
- autotransfusion — a process in which a patient receives some of his or her own blood in a transfusion rather than a donor's blood
- back projection — a method of projecting pictures onto a translucent screen so that they are viewed from the opposite side, used esp in films to create the illusion that the actors in the foreground are moving
- backup rotation — (operating system) Any system for re-using backup media, e.g. magnetic tape. One extreme would be to use the same media for every backup (e.g. copy disk A to disk B), the other extreme would be to use new media every time. The trade-off is between the cost of buying and storing media and the ability to restore any version of any file. One example is the Grandfather, Father, Son (GFS) scheme.
- baconian theory — the theory attributing the authorship of Shakespeare's plays to Francis Bacon.
- badminton court — the court on which games of badminton are played
- bandstop filter — A bandstop filter is a filter designed to eliminate all frequencies within a band of frequencies.
- banking product — one of the various services offered by a bank to its customers: mortgages, loans, insurance etc
- bar examination — a written examination to determine if one is qualified to practice law in a particular jurisdiction.
- bargain counter — a store counter on which goods are displayed for sale at reduced prices
- barry mountains — a mountain range in SE Australia, in E Victoria: part of the Australian Alps
- be raring to go — If you say that you are raring to go, you mean that you are very eager to start doing something.
- beat generation — members of the generation that came to maturity in the 1950s, whose rejection of the social and political systems of the West was expressed through contempt for regular work, possessions, traditional dress, etc, and espousal of anarchism, communal living, drugs, etc
- benedict arnold — Benedict, 1741–1801, American general in the Revolutionary War who became a traitor.
- bernoulli trial — one of a sequence of independent experiments each of which has the same probability of success, such as successive throws of a die, the outcome of which is described by a binomial distribution
- beta conversion — (theory) A term from lambda-calculus for beta reduction or beta abstraction.
- bidirectionally — in a bidirectional manner
- big bang theory — In astronomy the big bang theory is a theory that suggests that the universe was created as a result of an extremely large explosion.
- binary notation — a number system having a base of two, numbers being expressed by sequences of the digits 0 and 1: used in computing, as 0 and 1 can be represented electrically as off and on
- bioastronautics — the study of the effects of space flight on living organisms
- black operation — a covert and undocumented military operation
- blasting powder — a form of gunpowder made with sodium nitrate instead of saltpeter, used chiefly for blasting rock, ore, etc.
- boa constrictor — A boa constrictor is a large snake that kills animals by wrapping itself round their bodies and squeezing them to death. Boa constrictors are found mainly in South and Central America and the West Indies.
- body toning bar — a weighted exercise bar made of steel encased in a layer of foam, used for toning and strength training.
- bohemian forest — a mountain range between the SW Czech Republic and SE Germany. Highest peak: Arber, 1457 m (4780 ft)
- boston marriage — (especially in 19th-century New England) an intimate friendship between two women often maintaining a household together.
- 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
- branchiostegous — branchiostegal.
- brand extension — the practice of using a well-known brand name to promote new products or services in unrelated fields
- breakeven point — a point at which the total revenue and total cost are equal
- bring to a head — to bring or be brought to a crisis