16-letter words containing l, i, e, b, c
- dimethylcarbinol — isopropyl alcohol.
- double centering — a method of extending a survey line by taking the average of two foresights, one with the telescope direct and one with it inverted, made each time by transiting the telescope after a backsight.
- double precision — using twice the normal amount of storage, as two words rather than one, to represent a number.
- double-clutching — (of a bird) to produce a second clutch of eggs after the first has been removed, usually for hatching in an incubator.
- duplicate bridge — a form of contract bridge used in tournaments in which contestants play the identical series of deals, with each deal being scored independently, permitting individual scores to be compared.
- eclipsing binary — a variable star whose changes in brightness are caused by periodic eclipses of two stars in a binary system.
- el camino bignum — (humour) /el' k*-mee'noh big'nuhm/ The road mundanely called El Camino Real, a road through the San Francisco peninsula that originally extended all the way down to Mexico City and many portions of which are still intact. Navigation on the San Francisco peninsula is usually done relative to El Camino Real, which defines logical north and south even though it isn't really north-south many places. El Camino Real runs right past Stanford University. The Spanish word "real" (which has two syllables: /ray-al'/) means "royal"; El Camino Real is "the royal road". In the Fortran language, a "real" quantity is a number typically precise to seven significant digits, and a "double precision" quantity is a larger floating-point number, precise to perhaps fourteen significant digits (other languages have similar "real" types). When a hacker from MIT visited Stanford in 1976, he remarked what a long road El Camino Real was. Making a pun on "real", he started calling it "El Camino Double Precision" - but when the hacker was told that the road was hundreds of miles long, he renamed it "El Camino Bignum", and that name has stuck. (See bignum).
- electric blanket — electrically-heated bedcover
- experience table — an actuarial table, esp a mortality table based on past statistics
- flying ambulance — an aircraft used to take sick or injured people to hospital
- football special — a train service provided specially to transport football supporters to and from a match
- gabriel, richard — Richard Gabriel
- galvanic battery — battery (def 1a).
- gibberellic acid — a gibberellin C 18 H 21 O 4 COOH, produced as a metabolite by the fungus Gibberella fujikuroi, used as a stimulator of plant growth.
- hayes-compatible — (communications) A description of a modem which understands the same set of commands as one made by Hayes.
- huckleberry finn — (The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn) a novel (1884) by Mark Twain.
- hypersusceptible — hypersensitive (def 2).
- icterine warbler — a European variety of tree warbler (Hippolais icterina )
- imperceptibility — very slight, gradual, or subtle: the imperceptible slope of the road.
- imperfectability — The quality of not being perfectable; of being forever imperfect.
- imperfectibility — The state or quality of being imperfectible.
- inaccessibleness — The quality or state of being inaccessible or unreachable.
- inapplicableness — The state or quality of being inapplicable; inapplicability.
- incommensurables — Plural form of incommensurable.
- incomprehensible — impossible to understand or comprehend; unintelligible.
- incomprehensibly — impossible to understand or comprehend; unintelligible.
- inconceivability — (uncountable) The quality of being inconceivable.
- inconsolableness — The quality of being inconsolable.
- incontestability — incapable of being contested; not open to dispute; incontrovertible: incontestable proof.
- incontravertable — Misspelling of incontrovertible.
- incontrovertible — not controvertible; not open to question or dispute; indisputable: absolute and incontrovertible truth.
- incontrovertibly — not controvertible; not open to question or dispute; indisputable: absolute and incontrovertible truth.
- inconvertibility — The condition of being inconvertible.
- incorrigibleness — The quality of being incorrigible; incorrigibility.
- indescribability — (uncountable) The state or characteristic of being indescribable.
- indiscernibility — The state or characteristic of being indiscernible; inability to be observed.
- inexplicableness — The state of being difficult to account for; the state of being inexplicable.
- insusceptibility — not susceptible; incapable of being influenced or affected (usually followed by of or to): insusceptible of flattery; insusceptible to infection.
- intercalibration — to determine, check, or rectify the graduation of (any instrument giving quantitative measurements).
- interconvertible — to subject to interconversion; interchange.
- irreplaceability — The quality of being irreplaceable; inability to be replaced; (frequently) uniqueness.
- khakass republic — a constituent republic of S central Russia, formerly in Krasnoyarsk Territory: formed in 1930. Capital: Abakan. Pop: 546 100 (2002). Area: 61 900 sq km (23 855 sq miles)
- kit and caboodle — a set or collection of tools, supplies, instructional matter, etc., for a specific purpose: a first-aid kit; a sales kit.
- leaf-cutting bee — any of the bees of the family Megachilidae that cut circular pieces from leaves or flowers to line their nests.
- lesbian cymatium — cyma reversa.
- liberal democrat — In Britain, a Liberal Democrat is a member of the Liberal Democrat Party.
- library pictures — a caption used to alert viewers that footage being broadcast is from an earlier time and is not happening now
- lick observatory — the astronomical observatory of the University of California, situated on Mount Hamilton, near San Jose, California, and having a 120-inch (3-meter) reflecting telescope and a 36-inch (91-cm) refracting telescope.
- liebig condenser — a laboratory condenser consisting of a glass tube surrounded by a glass envelope through which cooling water flows
- lipstick lesbian — a lesbian who is feminine in manner or appearance; a femme.