13-letter words containing r, i, b
- bering strait — a strait between Alaska and Russia, connecting the Bering Sea and the Arctic Ocean
- berkeleianism — the philosophical system of George Berkeley, holding that objects exist only when perceived, that God's perception sustains the universe, and that there is no independent substratum or substance in which these perceptions inhere
- berkeley unix — Berkeley Software Distribution
- bermuda onion — a large white or yellow onion with a mild flavor, grown in Texas, California, etc.
- bernoulli box — (storage) A high capacity storage device, Iomega Corporation's first popular product, that spins a mylar disk over a read-write head using the Bernoulli principle.
- best practice — Best practice is the way of running a business or providing a service that is recognized as correct or most effective.
- beta particle — a high-speed electron or positron emitted by a nucleus during radioactive decay or nuclear fission
- beverly hills — a town in SW California, near Los Angeles: famous as the home of film stars. Pop: 34 941 (2003 est)
- bewilderingly — extremely confusing: a bewildering schedule of events.
- bias-ply tire — a vehicle tire in which the main plies or cords run across the bead.
- bib and brace — a work garment consisting of trousers and an upper front part supported by straps over the shoulders
- bible reading — a passage from the Bible, esp one read in a service
- bible-thumper — an enthusiastic or aggressive exponent of the Bible
- bibliographer — an expert in bibliography
- bibliographic — a complete or selective list of works compiled upon some common principle, as authorship, subject, place of publication, or printer.
- bibliolatrous — characterized by bibliolatry
- bibliothecary — a librarian
- bibliotherapy — the use of reading as therapy
- biculturalism — the characteristics, or policy, of a two-cultured society
- bidirectional — (of a printhead) capable of printing from left to right and from right to left
- big brown bat — any of several small to medium-sized common bats of the genera Myotis and Eptesicus, found worldwide in caves, trees, and buildings, including M. lucifugus (little brown bat) and E. fuscus (big brown bat) a widespread North American species.
- big gray wall — (jargon) What faces a VMS user searching for documentation. A full VMS kit comes on a pallet, the documentation taking up around 15 feet of shelf space before the addition of layered products such as compilers, databases, multi-vendor networking, and programming tools. Recent (since VMS version 5) DEC documentation comes with grey binders; under VMS version 4 the binders were orange and under version 3 they were blue. Often contracted to "Gray Wall".
- big-heartedly — in a big-hearted manner
- bighorn-river — a river flowing from central Wyoming to the Yellowstone River in S Montana. 336 miles (540 km) long.
- bikini briefs — a pair of men's or women's underpants that barely cover the groin area
- bildungsroman — a novel concerned with a person's formative years and development
- bilinear form — a function or functional of two variables that is linear with respect to each variable when the other variable is held fixed.
- bill of entry — a list of goods received at a customs house for export or import
- billiard ball — a hard ball used in billiards
- billiard room — a room in a house, club, etc., where billiards is played.
- bimolecularly — in a bimolecular fashion
- binary number — a number expressed in binary notation, as 1101.101 = 1 × 23 + 1 × 22 + 0 × 21 + 1 × 20 + 1 × 2–1 + 0 × 2–2 + 1 × 2–3 = 13 5⁄8
- binary prefix — (unit) (Or "IEC prefix") A prefix used with a unit of data to mean multiplication by a power of 1024. Binary prefixes are most often used with "byte" (e.g. "kilobyte") but also with bit (e.g. "megabit"). For example, the term kilobyte has historically been used to mean 1024 bytes, and megabyte to mean 1,048,576 bytes. The multipliers 1024 and 1,048,576 are powers of 1024, which is itself a power of two (1024 = 2^10). It is this factor of two that gives the name "binary prefix". This is in contrast to a decimal prefix denoting a power of 1000, which is itself a power of ten (1000 = 10^3). Decimal prefixes are used in science and engineering and are specified in widely adopted SI standards. Note that the actual prefix - kilo or mega - is the same, it is the interpretation that differs. The difference between the two interpretations increases with each multiplication, so while 1000 and 1024 differ by only 2.4%, 1000^6 and 1024^6 differ by 15%. The 1024-based interpretation of prefixes is often still used informally and especially when discussing the storage capacity of random-access memory. This has lead to storage device manufacturers being accused of false marketing for using the decimal interpretation where customers might assume the larger, historical, binary interpretation. In an attempt to clarify the distinction, in 1998 the IEC specified that kilobyte, megabyte, etc. should only be used for powers of 1000 (following SI). They specified new prefixes for powers of 1024 containing "bi" for "binary": kibibyte, mebibyte, etc.; an idea originally propsed by IUPAC. IEC also specified new abbreviations Ki, Mi, etc. for the new prefixes. Many other standards bodies such as NIST, IEEE and BIPM support this proposal but as of 2013 its use is rare in non-technical circles. Specific units of IEC 60027-2 A.2 and ISO/IEC 80000
- binary pulsar — a pulsar in a binary system.
- binary search — (algorithm) A search algorithm which repeatedly divides an ordered search space in half according to how the required (key) value compares with the middle element. The following pseudo-C routine performs a binary search return the index of the element of vector "thing[first..last]" equal to "target": if (target < thing[first] || target > thing[last]) return NOT_FOUND; while (first < last) { mid = (first+last)/2; /* truncate to integer */ if (target == thing[mid]) return mid; if (target < thing[mid]) last = mid-1; else first = mid+1; } if (target == thing[last]) return last; return NOT_FOUND; (2003-01-14)
- binary system — a system involving only two elements, as 0 and 1 or yes and no.
- binary weapon — a chemical weapon consisting of a projectile containing two substances separately that mix to produce a lethal agent when the projectile is fired
- binding screw — a screw used to secure one thing to another
- bio-autograph — an analytical technique in which organic compounds are separated by chromatography and identified by studying their effects on microorganisms.
- bio-terrorism — the use of living organisms and their toxic products to kill or incapacitate, esp as a political weapon
- bioautography — an analytical technique in which organic compounds are separated by chromatography and identified by studying their effects on microorganisms.
- biobehavioral — of or relating to the application of biological methods and ideas to the study of behavior in an attempt to understand emotions and reactions in terms of brain and physiological function.
- bioconversion — the use of biological processes or materials to change organic substances into a new form, such as the conversion of waste into methane by fermentation
- biodegradable — Something that is biodegradable breaks down or decays naturally without any special scientific treatment, and can therefore be thrown away without causing pollution.
- bioelectrical — relating to electrical current generated by biological activity
- bioenergetics — the study of energy transformations in living organisms and systems
- biogeographer — a person who is knowledgeable about biogeography
- biotic factor — a living thing, as an animal or plant, that influences or affects an ecosystem: How do humans affect other biotic factors? Weather is not a biotic factor because it is not alive.
- bipartisanism — the quality of being bipartisan
- bird dismount — Hecht1 (def 1).