14-letter words containing m, e, t, a
- batement light — a compartment of a window with tracery, the bottom of which is formed by the arched head of a compartment or compartments below.
- battered woman — See under battered woman syndrome.
- battered-women — the array of physical and psychological injuries exhibited by women (battered women or battered wives) who have been beaten repeatedly or otherwise abused by their partners or spouses.
- batting helmet — a rigid plastic cap with a sidepiece extending down over the ear, worn for protection while batting
- 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 cutter — a marconi-rigged cutter.
- bermuda shorts — close-fitting shorts that come down to the knees
- bertrand meyer — The author of the Eiffel Language and many articles on object-oriented software techniques.
- beta geminorum — Pollux
- bethlehem sage — a plant, Pulmonaria saccharata, of the borage family, native to Europe, having mottled, white leaves and white or reddish-purple flowers in clusters.
- betterment tax — a tax on an increase in the value of property effected by improvement
- bidialectalism — the state of being bidialectal
- billy no-mates — a person with no friends
- biocontainment — the confinement, as by sealed-off chambers, of materials that are harmful or potentially harmful to life.
- biomathematics — the study of the application of mathematics to biology
- bioremediation — the use of plants to extract heavy metals from contaminated soils and water
- 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
- bladder ketmia — plant with pale yellow flowers
- bladder ketmie — flower-of-an-hour
- blantyre-limbe — a city in S Malawi: largest city in the country; formed in 1956 from the adjoining towns of Blantyre and Limbe. Pop: 647 000 (2005 est)
- 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)
- bornyl formate — a liquid, C 11 H 18 O 2 , having a piny odor, used chiefly as a scent in the manufacture of soaps and disinfectants.
- break the mold — If you say that someone breaks the mold, you mean that they do completely different things from what has been done before or from what is usually done.
- breakfast room — a room set aside for serving and eating breakfast, esp in a hotel or guesthouse
- breakfast time — Breakfast time is the period of the morning when most people have their breakfast.
- breast implant — an object such as a sachet filled with gel introduced surgically into a woman's breast to enlarge it
- bremsstrahlung — the radiation produced when an electrically charged particle, esp an electron, is slowed down by the electric field of an atomic nucleus or an atomic ion
- 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
- bug-compatible — Said of a design or revision that has been badly compromised by a requirement to be compatible with fossils or misfeatures in other programs or (especially) previous releases of itself. "MS-DOS 2.0 used \ as a path separator to be bug-compatible with some cretin's choice of / as an option character in 1.0."
- buyer's market — When there is a buyer's market for a particular product, there are more of the products for sale than there are people who want to buy them, so buyers have a lot of choice and can make prices come down.
- buyers' market — a market in which goods and services are plentiful and prices relatively low.
- by appointment — If something can be done by appointment, people can arrange in advance to do it at a particular time.
- café macchiato — a hot beverage consisting of espresso and a small amount of foamed milk.
- cairngormstone — (mineral, rare) A yellow or smoky brown variety of rock crystal, found especially in the mountains of w Cairngorm in Scotland.
- calamata olive — a purplish-black, almond-shaped olive with a fruity flavor and meaty texture, often split and cured in brine and packed in vinegar.
- calendar month — A calendar month is one of the twelve months of the year.
- camp pendleton — a U.S. Marine Corps base in SW California on the Gulf of Santa Catalina.
- campaign chest — money collected and set aside for use in a campaign, especially a political one; a campaign fund.
- campylobacters — Plural form of campylobacter.
- cap the climax — to be or do more than could be expected or believed
- capital market — the financial institutions collectively that deal with medium-term and long-term capital and loans
- captive market — a group of consumers who are obliged through lack of choice to buy a particular product, thus giving the supplier a monopoly
- caramelisation — (chiefly British) alternative spelling of caramelization.
- caramelization — the conversion of sugar into caramel, caused by heating
- careers master — a male teacher who gives pupils advice and information about careers
- carpenter moth — any of various large moths of the family Cossidae, the larvae of which bore beneath and cause damage to tree bark