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14-letter words containing o, a, t

  • back-and-forth — backward and forward; side to side; to and fro: a back-and-forth shuttling of buses to the stadium; the back-and-forth movement of a clock's pendulum.
  • back-formation — the analogical creation of one word from another word that appears to be a derived or inflected form of the first by dropping the apparent affix or by modification.
  • back-to-basics — stressing simplicity and adherence to fundamental principles: The movement suggests a back-to-basics approach to living for those whose lives have become complicated.
  • backside-front — backend-to.
  • 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.
  • bacteriologist — a branch of microbiology dealing with the identification, study, and cultivation of bacteria and with their applications in medicine, agriculture, industry, and biotechnology.
  • bacteriophages — Plural form of bacteriophage.
  • bacteriostasis — inhibition of the growth and reproduction of bacteria, esp by the action of a chemical agent
  • bacteriostatic — the prevention of the further growth of bacteria.
  • ball indicator — a flight instrument that measures the angle of roll about an aircraft's horizontal axis, thereby indicating whether or not the aircraft is skidding or slipping.
  • ballast pocket — a depression that is formed beneath the ballast layer by penetration of ballast particles into the subgrade and that tends to collect moisture.
  • 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.
  • balsam of tolu — tolu
  • baltimore chop — a batted ball that takes a high bounce upon hitting the ground on or immediately in front of home plate, often enabling the batter to reach first base safely.
  • 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
  • baptismal vows — the solemn promises made during baptism, either by the person baptized or by his or her sponsors
  • barbados earth — a diatomaceous marl found in Barbados
  • barbour jacket — a hard-wearing waterproof waxed jacket
  • barium bromate — colorless, slightly water-soluble, poisonous crystals, Ba(BrO 3) 2 ⋅H 2 O, used in the preparation of certain bromates.
  • barometrically — By means of a barometer.
  • barometrograph — barograph.
  • barong tagalog — (in the Philippines) a man's long-sleeved formal overblouse, made of fine, sheer fabric, often embroidered.
  • barrier method — Barrier methods of contraception involve the use of condoms, diaphragms, or other devices that physically prevent the sperm from reaching the egg.
  • 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.
  • basket-of-gold — a yellow-flowered perennial plant (Alyssum saxatile, now more properly Aurinia saxatilis) of the crucifer family, often used in rock gardens
  • basotho-qwaqwa — (formerly) a Bantustan in South Africa, in the Orange Free State; the only Bantustan without exclaves: abolished in 1993
  • 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
  • batrachophobia — fear of amphibians
  • batrachophobic — relating to the fear of toads and frogs
  • 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 of wits — If you refer to a situation as a battle of wits, you mean that it involves people with opposing aims who compete with each other using their intelligence, rather than force.
  • battle station — the place or position that one is assigned to for battle or in an emergency.
  • 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
  • bayonet charge — a charge by riflemen with fixed bayonets
  • bayonet socket — a socket for a bayonet fitting
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