14-letter words containing o, n, e, p
- archencephalon — the primitive forebrain region of the embryo, anterior to the notochord, that gives rise to the midbrain and forebrain.
- armor-piercing — (of bullets, artillery shells, etc.) designed especially for piercing armor.
- arms inspector — a person who carries out an arms inspection
- assault weapon — any of various automatic and semiautomatic military firearms utilizing an intermediate-power cartridge, designed for individual use. Compare assault rifle.
- assembly point — a designated place where people have been told to wait after evacuating a building in the event of a fire or other emergency
- assemblyperson — a member of a legislative assembly, especially a member of the lower house of the legislature in certain states of the U.S.
- asthenospermia — (medicine) Loss or reduction in the strength or energy of sperm cells, hence infertility. Not always infertile many are subfertile.
- asthenospermic — (medicine) Characterised by or pertaining to asthenospermia, hence infertile.
- asthenospheric — relating to the asthenosphere
- at knife-point — under threat of being stabbed
- at one's peril — If you say that someone does something at their peril, you are warning them that they will probably suffer as a result of doing it.
- attention span — the period of time during which someone's attention is held by something in particular
- audio response — a computer response that is audible rather than textual or graphical
- auspiciousness — The state or quality of being auspicious or successful.
- autoresponders — Plural form of autoresponder.
- avoidance play — a play by the declarer designed to prevent a particular opponent from taking the lead.
- banana problem — (programming, humour) From the story of the little girl who said "I know how to spell "banana", but I don't know when to stop". Not knowing where or when to bring a production to a close (compare fencepost error). One may say "there is a banana problem" of an algorithm with poorly defined or incorrect termination conditions, or in discussing the evolution of a design that may be succumbing to featuritis (see also creeping elegance, creeping featuritis).
- bancroft prize — one of a group of annual awards for literary achievement in American history and biography: administered by Columbia University.
- bare ownership — ownership of a piece of property without the right to use and derive profit from that property
- base component — the system of rules in a transformational grammar that specify the deep structure of the language
- bass saxophone — a large saxophone of low range, usually supported on a stand while being played.
- be in the loop — If someone is in the loop, they are part of a group of people who make decisions about important things, or they know about these decisions. If they are out of the loop, they do not make or know about important decisions.
- benday process — a process for adding tone or shading, as in reproducing drawings, by the overlay on the plate of patterns, as of dots
- benzodiazepine — any of a group of chemical compounds that are used as minor tranquillizers, such as diazepam (Valium) and chlordiazepoxide (Librium)
- beta-endorphin — a potent endorphin released by the anterior pituitary gland in response to pain, trauma, exercise, or other forms of stress.
- beyond compare — If you describe something as beyond compare, you mean that it is extremely good or extremely great.
- beyond dispute — not open to dispute or question; settled
- bioprospecting — searching for plant or animal species for use as a source of commercially exploitable products, such as medicinal drugs
- bisphosphonate — any drug of a class that inhibits the resorption of bone; used in treating certain bone disorders, esp osteoporosis
- bite one's lip — If you bite your lip or your tongue, you stop yourself from saying something that you want to say, because it would be the wrong thing to say in the circumstances.
- blotting paper — Blotting paper is thick soft paper that you use for soaking up and drying ink on a piece of paper.
- blow one's top — to lose one's temper
- bodice-ripping — A bodice-ripping film or novel is one which is set in the past and which includes a lot of sex scenes. You use this word especially if you do not think it is very good and is just intended to entertain people.
- bomb explosion — an explosion caused by the detonation of a bomb
- bone porcelain — bone china.
- bow and scrape — to behave in an excessively deferential or obsequious way
- bowstring hemp — a hemplike fibre obtained from the sansevieria
- breaking point — If something or someone has reached breaking point, they have so many problems or difficulties that they can no longer cope with them, and may soon collapse or be unable to continue.
- brownie points — a credit toward advancement or good standing gained especially by currying favor.
- bubble company — a company whose shares are highly valued and then plummet
- bubonic plague — Bubonic plague is a serious infectious disease spread by rats. It killed many people during the Middle Ages.
- burn-in period — 1. (testing) A factory soak test intended to increase the chance that components that fail early due to infant mortality will fail before the system leaves the factory. 2. (jargon) When one is so intensely involved in a new project that one forgets basic needs such as food, drink and sleep. Excessive burn-in can lead to burn-out. See hack mode, larval stage.
- businesspeople — a person regularly employed in business, especially a white-collar worker, executive, or owner.
- businessperson — Businesspeople are people who work in business.
- butylene group — any of four bivalent isomeric groups having the formula –C 4 H 8 –.
- by appointment — If something can be done by appointment, people can arrange in advance to do it at a particular time.
- cadogan teapot — a lidless teapot that is made from or in imitation of an inverted Chinese wine pot and is filled through the bottom.
- camp counselor — activities supervisor
- camp pendleton — a U.S. Marine Corps base in SW California on the Gulf of Santa Catalina.
- campanulaceous — of, relating to, or belonging to the Campanulaceae, a family of temperate and subtropical plants, including the campanulas, having bell-shaped nodding flowers