13-letter words containing r, i, s, n
- aum shinrikyo — a syncretistic Japanese cult combining elements of Buddhism, Hinduism, and Christianity, founded by Shoko Asahara in 1986; responsible for a number of murders and in particular a nerve-gas attack on the Tokyo underground in 1995
- australianism — the Australian national character or spirit
- australianize — (esp of a new immigrant) to adopt or cause to adopt Australian habits and attitudes; integrate into Australian society
- austrian pine — an evergreen tree, Pina nigra austriaca
- authorisation — Alternative spelling of authorization.
- avant-gardism — the attitudes, techniques, etc., of the cultural avant-garde.
- awe-inspiring — If you describe someone or something as awe-inspiring, you are emphasizing that you think that they are remarkable and amazing, although sometimes rather frightening.
- backing store — a computer storage device, usually a disk, that provides additional storage space for information so that it can be accessed and referred to when required and may be copied into the processor if needed
- bacteriolysin — an antibody which, when it combines with bacterial cells, causes lysis of those cells, thus destroying them
- balch springs — a town in NE Texas.
- banana spider — a large, yellowish, tropical crab spider (Heteropoda venatoria) occasionally found in bunches of bananas shipped to the Temperate Zones
- banderilleros — Plural form of banderillero.
- bandspreading — an additional tuning control in some radio receivers whereby a selected narrow band of frequencies can be spread over a wider frequency band, in order to give finer control of tuning
- banister back — a back of a chair or the like, usually having semicircular spindles between the top rail and the cross rail or seat.
- banker's bill — a banknote
- banking hours — the hours during which a bank is open for business
- barnsbreaking — noisy and exuberant activity; boisterous mischief-making
- barosinusitis — aerosinusitis.
- barrier-nurse — to tend (infectious patients) in isolation, to prevent the spread of infection
- bartholinitis — Inflammation of Bartholin's cyst.
- basic fortran — (language) A subset of Fortran.
- basket dinner — a group social gathering, as of church members, to which participants contribute casseroles or other dishes to share.
- basking shark — a very large plankton-eating shark, Cetorhinus maximus, often floating at the sea surface: family Cetorhinidae
- bass clarinet — a clarinet with the lowest range, in the octave below the B-flat clarinet
- bass-baritone — a singer or voice in the bass range with baritone qualities
- bastard eigne — the first-born illegitimate son of parents whose second son was legitimate.
- bearing sword — a large sword carried for its owner by a squire or servant because of its size.
- beer-swilling — in the habit of drinking a lot of beer
- bend sinister — a diagonal line bisecting a shield from the top right to the bottom left, typically indicating a bastard line
- beneficiary's — a person or group that receives benefits, profits, or advantages.
- 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
- 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
- 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.
- binding screw — a screw used to secure one thing to another
- 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
- bioenergetics — the study of energy transformations in living organisms and systems
- bipartisanism — the quality of being bipartisan
- bird dismount — Hecht1 (def 1).
- birth parents — a child's biological parents, regardless of whether they subsequently bring up the child
- bishop's ring — a reddish-brown corona occasionally seen around the sun, caused by volcanic dust in the atmosphere.
- bits per inch — (unit) (BPI) A measure of the recording density of a magnetic tape or disk.
- black russian — a drink made from one part coffee liqueur and two parts vodka, served over ice.
- blamestorming — a discussion or meeting for the purpose of assigning blame.
- boarding fees — fees paid for boarding at a school
- boarding pass — A boarding pass is a card that a passenger must have when boarding a plane or a boat.
- boardinghouse — a private house in which accommodation and meals are provided for paying guests