16-letter words containing r, u, c, t
- becquerel effect — the electromotive force produced by the unequal illumination of two identical electrodes placed in an electrolyte.
- behind the curve — behind the times; behind schedule
- benguela current — a strong ocean current in the South Atlantic, flowing northward along the SW coast of Africa
- bernoulli effect — the decrease in pressure as the velocity of a fluid increases.
- big picture, the — a long-range or overall view or account of some complex matter
- block-structured — (language) Any programming language in which sections of source code contained within pairs of matching delimiters such as "" and "" (e.g. in C) or "begin" and "end" (e.g. Algol) are executed as a single unit. A block of code may be the body of a subroutine or function, or it may be controlled by conditional execution (if statement) or repeated execution (while statement, for statement, etc.). In all but the most primitive block structured languages a variable's scope can be limited to the block in which it is declared. Block-structured languages support structured programming where each block can be written without detailed knowledge of the inner workings of other blocks, thus allowing a top-down design approach. See also abstract data type, module.
- branchiopneustic — breathing by means of gills, as certain aquatic insect larvae.
- bring to justice — to capture, try, and usually punish (a criminal, an outlaw, etc)
- british columbia — a province of W Canada, on the Pacific coast: largely mountainous with extensive forests, rich mineral resources, and important fisheries. Capital: Victoria. Pop: 4 400 057 (2011 est). Area: 930 532 sq km (359 279 sq miles)
- buckthorn family — the plant family Rhamnaceae, characterized by shrubs and trees having alternate, simple leaves, clusters of small flowers, and fruit in the form of a drupe or capsule, and including the buckthorn, cascara, and New Jersey tea.
- bureaucratically — of, relating to, or characteristic of a bureaucrat or a bureaucracy; arbitrary and routine.
- burnt-tip orchid — a small orchid, Orchis ustulata, resembling the lady orchid, having dark reddish-brown hoods that give a burnt look to the tip of the flower spike
- bury the hatchet — to cease hostilities and become reconciled
- buttercup family — the plant family Ranunculaceae, typified by mostly herbaceous plants having usually alternate leaves, multistaminate flowers sometimes lacking petals but with colorful sepals, and including the anemone, buttercup, clematis, columbine, delphinium, and monkshood.
- buttercup squash — a small, usually dark-green squash that is a variety of Cucurbita maxima, having sweet orange flesh.
- butterfly effect — the idea, used in chaos theory, that a very small difference in the initial state of a physical system can make a significant difference to the state at some later time
- butterfly orchid — an orchid (Oncidium papilio) with reddish flowers, native to South America
- butterfly scheme — A parallel version of Scheme for the BBN Butterfly computer.
- byzantine church — Orthodox Church (def 1).
- caducibranchiate — (of many amphibians, such as frogs) having gills during one stage of the life cycle only
- calcium arsenate — a toxic, white powder, Ca3(AsO4)2, used as an insecticide in the form of a spray or dust
- calculate a risk — If you calculate a risk, you decide how likely an event is, whether the insurer should underwrite the risk, and at what cost.
- call to quarters — a bugle call shortly before taps, notifying soldiers to retire to their quarters
- camborne-redruth — a former (until 1974) urban district in SW England, in Cornwall: formed in 1934 by the amalgamation of the neighbouring towns of Camborne and Redruth. Pop: 39 936 (2001)
- canaries current — an ocean current of the North Atlantic flowing southward past Spain and North Africa.
- cantankerousness — disagreeable to deal with; contentious; peevish: a cantankerous, argumentative man.
- canterbury bells — a cultivated bellflower (Campanula medium) with white, pink, or blue cuplike flowers
- canterbury tales — an unfinished literary work by Chaucer, largely in verse, consisting of stories told by pilgrims on their way to the shrine of St. Thomas à Becket at Canterbury
- cardinal virtues — the most important moral qualities, traditionally justice, prudence, temperance, and fortitude
- caricature plant — a tropical Old World shrub, Graptophyllum pictum, of the acanthus family, characterized by purple or red tubular flowers and leaf markings resembling the profile of a human face.
- carpatho-ukraine — a region in W Ukraine: ceded by Czechoslovakia in 1945.
- cathedral church — the principal church in a diocese
- cathode ray tube — (hardware) (CRT) An electrical device for displaying images by exciting phosphor dots with a scanned electron beam. CRTs are found in computer VDUs and monitors, televisions and oscilloscopes. The first commercially practical CRT was perfected on 29 January 1901 by Allen B DuMont. A large glass envelope containing a negative electrode (the cathode) emits electrons (formerly called "cathode rays") when heated, as in a vacuum tube. The electrons are accelerated across a large voltage gradient toward the flat surface of the tube (the screen) which is covered with phosphor. When an electron strikes the phosphor, light is emitted. The electron beam is deflected by electromagnetic coils around the outside of the tube so that it scans across the screen, usually in horizontal stripes. This scan pattern is known as a raster. By controlling the current in the beam, the brightness at any particular point (roughly a "pixel") can be varied. Different phosphors have different "persistence" - the length of time for which they glow after being struck by electrons. If the scanning is done fast enough, the eye sees a steady image, due to both the persistence of the phospor and of the eye itself. CRTs also differ in their dot pitch, which determines their spatial resolution, and in whether they use interlace or not.
- cathode-ray tube — A cathode-ray tube is a device in televisions and computer terminals which sends an image onto the screen.
- cedar revolution — the popular protests in 2005 that brought down the Lebanese cabinet and prompted Syria to withdraw its troops from Lebanon
- celebrity status — the prominence of film star, footballer, musician etc who is constantly photographed and written about in tabloids and magazines
- central european — involving or denoting the people, countries, cultures, or languages of Central Europe
- centrifugal pump — a pump having a high-speed rotating impeller whose blades throw the water outwards
- century meltdown — Year 2000
- character armour — the defence an individual exhibits to others and to himself or herself to disguise his or her underlying weaknesses: a term coined by William Reich
- charitable trust — a trust set up for the benefit of a charity that complies with the regulations of the Charity Commissioners to enable it to be exempt from paying income tax
- chatsworth house — a mansion near Bakewell in Derbyshire: seat of the Dukes of Devonshire; built (1687–1707) in the classical style
- check-in counter — The check-in counter at an airport or hotel is the counter or desk where you check in.
- checkout counter — a checkout
- chemoautotrophic — producing organic matter by the use of energy obtained by oxidation of certain chemicals with carbon dioxide as the carbon source
- chemotherapeutic — of or used in chemotherapy
- chian turpentine — turpentine (def 2).
- cholera infantum — an often fatal form of gastroenteritis occurring in infants, not of the same cause as cholera but having somewhat similar characteristics.
- christmas cactus — a Brazilian cactus, Schlumbergera (formerly Zygocactus) truncatus, widely cultivated as an ornamental for its showy red flowers
- chromatic number — (mathematics) The smallest number of colours necessary to colour the nodes of a graph so that no two adjacent nodes have the same colour. See also: four colour map theorem.