14-letter words containing n, o, t, a, b
- ballot rigging — Ballot rigging is the act of illegally changing the result of an election by producing a false record of the number of votes.
- balto-slavonic — a hypothetical subfamily of Indo-European languages consisting of Baltic and Slavonic. It is now generally believed that similarities between them result from geographical proximity rather than any special relationship
- bamboo curtain — (esp in the 1950s and 1960s) the political and military barrier to communications around the People's Republic of China
- bamboo network — a network of close-knit Chinese entrepreneurs with large corporate empires in southeast Asia
- bamboo turning — turning of spindles and framing members to simulate the jointing of bamboo.
- ban-the-bomber — a person who vigorously advocates banning the development or use of nuclear weapons.
- bancroft prize — one of a group of annual awards for literary achievement in American history and biography: administered by Columbia University.
- bang to rights — caught red-handed
- baptismal font — a large bowl for baptismal water, usually mounted on a pedestal
- barong tagalog — (in the Philippines) a man's long-sleeved formal overblouse, made of fine, sheer fabric, often embroidered.
- 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
- basque country — Theregion comprising three provinces in N Spain, on the Bay of Biscay, inhabited by Basques: 2,803 sq mi (7,260 sq km); pop. 2,104,000
- basso cantante — a bass voice with an upper range that is more developed than that of the basso profundo.
- basso continuo — continuo.
- bastard indigo — a bushy shrub, Amorpha fruticosa, of the legume family, native to North America, having elongated clusters of dull purplish or bluish flowers.
- bastardisation — Alternative form of bastardization.
- bastardization — the act of bastardizing
- 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.
- battle station — the place or position that one is assigned to for battle or in an emergency.
- bayonet charge — a charge by riflemen with fixed bayonets
- bayonet socket — a socket for a bayonet fitting
- be on the ball — to be alert; be efficient
- beard-stroking — deep thought
- beautification — Making beautiful, beautifying, improving the appearance of something.
- beauty contest — A beauty contest is a competition in which young women are judged to decide which one is the most beautiful.
- beclomethasone — a potent synthetic corticosteroid, C 28 H 37 ClO 7 , prepared as an inhalant in the treatment of bronchial asthma.
- beta geminorum — Pollux
- beta reduction — [lambda-calculus] The application of a lambda abstraction to an argument expression. A copy of the body of the lambda abstraction is made and occurrences of the bound variable being replaced by the argument. E.g. (\ x . x+1) 4 --> 4+1 Beta reduction is the only kind of reduction in the pure lambda-calculus. The opposite of beta reduction is beta abstraction. These are the two kinds of beta conversion. See also name capture.
- beta-endorphin — a potent endorphin released by the anterior pituitary gland in response to pain, trauma, exercise, or other forms of stress.
- beta-oxidation — a process by which fatty acids are degraded, involving oxidation of the beta carbons and removal of successive two-carbon fragments from the fatty acid.
- betake oneself — to go; move
- betray oneself — to reveal one's true character, intentions, etc
- beyond a doubt — to be uncertain about; consider questionable or unlikely; hesitate to believe.
- billy no-mates — a person with no friends
- binary counter — (electronics, hardware) A digital circuit which has a clock input and a number of count outputs which give the number of clock cycles. The output may change either on rising or falling clock edges. The circuit may also have a reset input which sets all outputs to zero when asserted. The counter may be either a synchronous counter or a ripple counter.
- bioaeronautics — the use of aircraft in the discovery, development, and protection of natural and biological resources
- biocontainment — the confinement, as by sealed-off chambers, of materials that are harmful or potentially harmful to life.
- biodegradation — to decay and become absorbed by the environment: toys that will biodegrade when they're discarded.
- bioinformatics — the branch of information science concerned with large databases of biochemical or pharmaceutical information
- bioregionalist — someone who believes in bioregionalism
- bioremediation — the use of plants to extract heavy metals from contaminated soils and water
- bipolarisation — the act of bipolarising
- bipolarization — the action of rendering something bipolar
- bisphosphonate — any drug of a class that inhibits the resorption of bone; used in treating certain bone disorders, esp osteoporosis
- blanket-flower — any composite plant of the genus Gaillardia, having showy heads of yellow or red flowers.
- blaxploitation — a genre of films featuring Black stereotypes
- bleat on about — If you say that someone is bleating on about something, you mean that they are talking about it a great deal in a way which makes them sound weak and irritating.
- block faulting — the process by which tensional forces in the earth's crust cause large bodies of rock to founder.