17-letter words containing n, t, e, r
- boat-billed heron — a nocturnal, tropical American wading bird (Cochlearius cochlearius) with a large, broad bill: it is the only member of a family (Cochleariidae) of wading birds
- body center plate — one of a pair of plates that fit together and support the body of a car on a truck, while allowing the truck to rotate with respect to the body. One plate (body center plate) is attached to the underside of the car body and the other (truck center plate) is part of the car truck.
- bohemian brethren — a Protestant Christian sect formed in the 15th century from various Hussite groups, which rejected oaths and military service and advocated a pure and disciplined spiritual life. It was reorganized in 1722 as the Moravian Church
- book depreciation — Book depreciation is depreciation in a company's internal financial records that is different from the amount that is used for taxes.
- boolean operation — any operation in which each of the operands and the result take one of two values.
- bow street runner — (in Britain from 1749 to 1829) an officer at Bow Street magistrates' court, London, whose duty was to pursue and arrest criminals
- bowel obstruction — a blockage in the bowel
- branch delay slot — delayed control-transfer
- branch prediction — (processor, algorithm) A technique used in some processors with instruction prefetch to guess whether a conditional branch will be taken or not and prefetch code from the appropriate location. When a branch instruction is executed, its address and that of the next instruction executed (the chosen destination of the branch) are stored in the Branch Target Buffer. This information is used to predict which way the instruction will branch the next time it is executed so that instruction prefetch can continue. When the prediction is correct (and it is over 90% of the time), executing a branch does not cause a pipeline break. Some later CPUs simply prefetch both paths instead of trying to predict which way the branch will go. An extension of the idea of branch prediction is speculative execution.
- brazilian peridot — a light yellowish-green tourmaline used as a gem: not a true peridot.
- break one's heart — to grieve or cause to grieve very deeply, esp through love
- breakdown voltage — the minimum applied voltage that would cause a given insulator or electrode to break down.
- breathe life into — revive, rejuvenate
- brezhnev doctrine — the doctrine expounded by Leonid Brezhnev in November 1968 affirming the right of the Soviet Union to intervene in the affairs of Communist countries to strengthen Communism.
- brightening agent — a compound applied to a textile to increase its brightness by the conversion of ultraviolet radiation to visible (blue) light, used in detergents
- brighton and hove — a city and unitary authority in S England, in East Sussex. Pop: 251 500 (2003 est). Area: 72 sq km (28 sq miles)
- bring up the rear — to be at the back in a procession, race, etc
- british cameroons — a former British trust territory of West Africa
- british-cameroons — German Kamerun. a region in W Africa: a German protectorate 1884–1919; divided in 1919 into British and French mandates.
- brocot escapement — a type of anchor escapement.
- broken white line — a regular, discontinuous white line on a roadway, indicating that overtaking is permitted
- brokerage account — A brokerage account is an account with a broker where an investor can buy and sell and hold securities.
- bronze star medal — a U.S. military decoration awarded for heroic or meritorious achievement or service in combat not involving aerial flight
- brownian movement — random movement of microscopic particles suspended in a fluid, caused by bombardment of the particles by molecules of the fluid. First observed in 1827, it provided strong evidence in support of the kinetic theory of molecules
- budget resolution — a resolution adopted by both houses of the U.S. Congress setting forth, reaffirming, or revising the budget for the U.S. government for a fiscal year.
- budgetary control — a system of managing a business by applying a financial value to each forecast activity. Actual performance is subsequently compared with the estimates
- buncher resonator — See under Klystron.
- bureaucratization — to divide an administrative agency or office into bureaus.
- bursting strength — the capacity of a thing or substance to resist change when under pressure.
- burton-upon-trent — a town in W central England, in E Staffordshire: famous for brewing. Pop: 43 784 (2001)
- butterfly bandage — a butterfly-shaped strip of adhesive medical tape used, when stitches are not required, to keep a deep cut or incision tightly closed while it heals
- butternut pumpkin — a variety of pumpkin, eaten as vegetable
- buyers' inflation — inflation in which rising demand results in a rise in prices.
- by return of post — by the next mail in the opposite direction
- caesarean section — A Caesarean or a Caesarean section is an operation in which a baby is lifted out of a woman's womb through an opening cut in her abdomen.
- cafeteria benefit — a fringe benefit chosen by an employee from a range of benefits offered under a cafeteria plan.
- calcium carbonate — a white crystalline salt occurring in limestone, chalk, marble, calcite, coral, and pearl: used in the production of lime and cement. Formula: CaCO3
- california nutmeg — a tall, pungently aromatic California evergreen tree, Torreya californica, of the yew family, having a fissured, gray-brown bark and small, purple-streaked, green fruit.
- california privet — a privet, Ligustrum ovalifolium, of the olive family, native to Japan, having glossy, oval leaves and long clusters of white flowers, widely used for hedges in the U.S.
- campus university — a university in which the buildings, often including shops and cafés, are all on one site
- can't be bothered — If you say that you can't be bothered to do something, you mean that you are not going to do it because you think it is unnecessary or because you are too lazy.
- cancer specialist — a medical professional who specializes in the treatment or study of malignant growths or tumours
- cantilever bridge — a bridge having spans that are constructed as cantilevers and often a suspended span or spans, each end of which rests on one end of a cantilever span
- cape horn current — the part of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current flowing E at Cape Horn.
- carbon offsetting — a program in which a company, country, etc., reduces or offsets its carbon emissions through the funding of activities and projects that improve the environment: Carbon offsetting does not always have a quantifiable impact on the planet.
- cardiac tamponade — tamponade (def 2).
- cardiac-tamponade — Medicine/Medical. the use of a tampon, as to stop a hemorrhage.
- caretaker manager — a person who temporarily holds the office of manager of a football club
- caribbean current — an ocean current flowing westward through the Caribbean Sea.
- carolina parakeet — an extinct New World parakeet, Conuropsis carolinensis, that ranged into the northern U.S., having yellowish-green plumage with an orange-yellow head.