16-letter words containing o, u, b, a
- labour agreement — a contract between workers and managers setting out working conditions, wages, etc
- labour relations — Labour relations refers to the relationship between employers and employees in industry, and the political decisions and laws that affect it.
- labour-intensive — Labour-intensive industries or methods of making things involve a lot of workers. Compare capital-intensive.
- labrador current — a cold ocean current flowing southwards off the coast of Labrador and meeting the warm Gulf Stream, causing dense fogs off the coast of Newfoundland
- leaps and bounds — You can use in leaps and bounds or by leaps and bounds to emphasize that someone or something is improving or increasing quickly and greatly.
- leveraged buyout — the purchase of a company with borrowed money, using the company's assets as collateral, and often discharging the debt and realizing a profit by liquidating the company. Abbreviation: LBO.
- liberal unionist — a Liberal who opposed Gladstone's policy of Irish Home Rule in 1886 and after
- medulloblastomas — Plural form of medulloblastoma.
- metes and bounds — the precisely described boundary lines of a parcel of land, as found in a deed
- montagu's blenny — a small blenny, Coryphoblennius galerita, found among rocks in shallow water
- mossbauer effect — the phenomenon in which an atom in a crystal undergoes no recoil when emitting a gamma ray, giving all the emitted energy to the gamma ray, resulting in a sharply defined wavelength.
- mountain climber — someone who climbs or walks up mountains
- mulberry harbour — either of two prefabricated floating harbours towed across the English Channel to the French coast for the Allied invasion of Normandy in 1944
- nitrous bacteria — bacteria that convert ammonia to nitrites in the soil
- non-attributable — to regard as resulting from a specified cause; consider as caused by something indicated (usually followed by to): She attributed his bad temper to ill health.
- non-bureaucratic — of, relating to, or characteristic of a bureaucrat or a bureaucracy; arbitrary and routine.
- non-quantifiable — to determine, indicate, or express the quantity of.
- nondurable goods — goods that remain usable for, or must be replaced within, a relatively short period of time, as food, apparel, or fabrics
- norwegian buhund — a slightly-built medium-sized dog of a breed with erect pointed ears and a short thick tail carried curled over its back
- numbered account — a bank account whose owner is identified by a number for the purpose of preserving anonymity.
- oblique triangle — any triangle that does not have a right angle (contrasted with right triangle).
- oblique zenithal — a type of map projection in which part of the earth's surface is projected onto a plane tangential to it between the poles and the equator
- obsequent stream — a stream flowing in a direction opposite to that of the dip of the local strata.
- of human bondage — a novel (1915) by W. Somerset Maugham.
- onboard computer — onboard a vehicle, ship, plane, train or spacecraft
- operating budget — money allocated to a project
- ordinary jubilee — the celebration of any of certain anniversaries, as the twenty-fifth (silver jubilee) fiftieth (golden jubilee) or sixtieth or seventy-fifth (diamond jubilee)
- organized labour — labour carried out by workers in trade unions, or the workers themselves
- outboard profile — an exterior side elevation of a vessel, showing all deck structures, rigging, fittings, etc.
- overurbanization — the act or fact of urbanizing, or taking on the characteristics of a city: Urbanization has led to more air pollution and increasing childhood asthma.
- oxidation number — the state of an element or ion in a compound with regard to the electrons gained or lost by the element or ion in the reaction that formed the compound, expressed as a positive or negative number indicating the ionic charge of the element or ion.
- paratuberculosis — Johne's disease.
- photograph album — bound book for photos
- potato tuberworm — the larva of the potato moth.
- public relations — (used with a plural verb) the actions of a corporation, store, government, individual, etc., in promoting goodwill between itself and the public, the community, employees, customers, etc.
- public transport — fare-paying travel
- publication date — the date on which a book or periodical is or is planned to be published.
- put in mothballs — to postpone work on (a project, activity, etc)
- questionableness — The state or condition of being questionable; dubiousness.
- rambunctiousness — difficult to control or handle; wildly boisterous: a rambunctious child.
- razor-billed auk — a black and white auk, Alca torda, of the American and European coasts of the northern North Atlantic, having a compressed black bill encircled by a white band.
- reaction turbine — a turbine driven by the reactive force of a fluid passing through the rotor blades.
- reasonable doubt — law: grounds for believing sb is innocent
- rectus abdominis — a long flat muscle that extends along the whole length of both sides of the abdomen. It flexes the vertebral column, particularly the lumbar portion; it also tenses the anterior abdominal wall and assists in compressing the abdominal contents
- redistributional — a distribution performed again or anew.
- reserve buoyancy — the difference between the volume of a hull below the designed waterline and the volume of the hull below the lowest opening incapable of being made watertight.
- ribonucleic acid — RNA.
- right about face — Military. a command, given to a soldier or soldiers at attention, to turn the body about toward the right so as to face in the opposite direction. the act of so turning in a prescribed military manner.
- right honourable — (in Britain and certain Commonwealth countries) a title of respect for a Privy Councillor or an appeal-court judge
- rough and tumble — characterized by violent, random, disorderly action and struggles: a rough-and-tumble fight; He led an adventuresome, rough-and-tumble life.