14-letter words containing m, a, s, o
- backstrap loom — a simple horizontal loom, used especially in Central and South America, on which one of two beams holding the warp yarn is attached to a strap that passes across the weaver's back.
- ball of muscle — a very strong, fit, or forceful person
- balsam of peru — an aromatic balsam that is obtained from the tropical South American leguminous tree Myroxylon pereirae and is similar to balsam of Tolu
- balsam of tolu — tolu
- balsaminaceous — of, relating to, or belonging to the Balsaminaceae, a family of flowering plants, including balsam and touch-me-not, that have irregular flowers and explosive capsules
- baptismal font — a large bowl for baptismal water, usually mounted on a pedestal
- baptismal vows — the solemn promises made during baptism, either by the person baptized or by his or her sponsors
- base community — (especially in South America) a group of people taking part in religious devotions and Bible study, who seek to apply this in their socioeconomic and political situation.
- base component — the system of rules in a transformational grammar that specify the deep structure of the language
- basidiomycetes — Mycology. any of a group of fungi constituting the phylum Basidiomycota of the kingdom Fungi (or, in older classification schemes, the class Basidiomycetes of the kingdom Plantae), characterized by bearing the spores on a basidium, including the smuts, rust, mushrooms, and puffballs.
- bay psalm book — a translation of the Psalms by John Eliot and others: the first book published (1640) in America.
- 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
- beclomethasone — a potent synthetic corticosteroid, C 28 H 37 ClO 7 , prepared as an inhalant in the treatment of bronchial asthma.
- bermuda shorts — close-fitting shorts that come down to the knees
- beyond measure — If you say that something has changed or that it has affected you beyond measure, you are emphasizing that it has done this to a great extent.
- bildungsromane — a type of novel concerned with the education, development, and maturing of a young protagonist.
- billy no-mates — a person with no friends
- bioinformatics — the branch of information science concerned with large databases of biochemical or pharmaceutical information
- biomathematics — the study of the application of mathematics to biology
- bioregionalism — the conviction that environmental and social policies should be determined by the bioregion rather than economics or politics
- biosystematics — the study of the variation and evolution of a population of organisms in relation to their taxonomic classification
- biosystematist — someone who studies or works professionally in the field of biosystematics
- black diamonds — carbonado1 .
- block sampling — the selection of a corpus for statistical literary analysis by random selection of a starting point and consideration of the continuous passage following it
- blow off steam — water in the form of an invisible gas or vapor.
- blue mountains — a mountain range in the US, in NE Oregon and SE Washington. Highest peak: Rock Creek Butte, 2773 m (9097 ft)
- body mechanics — body exercises that are intended to improve one's posture, stamina, poise, etc.
- bounce message — A notification message returned to the sender by a site unable to relay e-mail to the intended recipient or the next link in a bang path. Reasons might include a nonexistent or misspelled user name or a down relay site. Bounce messages can themselves fail, with occasionally ugly results; see sorcerer's apprentice mode and software laser. The terms "bounce mail" and "barfmail" are also common.
- breakfast room — a room set aside for serving and eating breakfast, esp in a hotel or guesthouse
- bring onstream — To bring onstream a plant, mine, oilfield, etc. is to start production there.
- broad-spectrum — effective against a wide variety of diseases or microorganisms
- cahokia mounds — the largest group of prehistoric Indian earthworks in the US, located northeast of East St Louis
- cairngormstone — (mineral, rare) A yellow or smoky brown variety of rock crystal, found especially in the mountains of w Cairngorm in Scotland.
- calumniousness — Calumny.
- camelopardalis — a N constellation between Ursa Major and Cassiopeia; the Giraffe
- camera obscura — a darkened chamber or small building in which images of outside objects are projected onto a flat surface by a convex lens in an aperture
- camp counselor — activities supervisor
- campanulaceous — of, relating to, or belonging to the Campanulaceae, a family of temperate and subtropical plants, including the campanulas, having bell-shaped nodding flowers
- campylobacters — Plural form of campylobacter.
- campylotropous — (of an ovule) curved so that the micropyle and funiculus almost touch
- caramelisation — (chiefly British) alternative spelling of caramelization.
- carcinomatosis — a condition characterized by widespread dissemination of carcinomas or by a carcinoma that affects a large area
- carcinosarcoma — a malignant tumour composed of carcinoma and sarcoma
- case framework — A set of products and conventions that allow CASE tools to be integrated into a coherent environment.
- casement cloth — a sheer fabric made of a variety of fibers, used for window curtains and as backing for heavy drapery or decorative fabrics.
- castrametation — the art of designing and laying out an encampment
- center of mass — the point in a body or system of bodies at which the entire mass may be assumed to be concentrated
- centre of mass — the point at which the mass of a system could be concentrated without affecting the behaviour of the system under the action of external linear forces
- cephalometrics — The measurement and analysis of the craniofacial area, especially as an aid to dental or orthodontic procedures.
- chemosterilant — any process or chemical compound that can produce sterility, used esp. in insect control