12-letter words containing s, a, b, r
- british warm — an army officer's short thick overcoat
- brittle star — any echinoderm of the class Ophiuroidea, having the body composed of a central, rounded disk from which radiate long, slender, fragile arms.
- brittle-star — any echinoderm of the class Ophiuroidea, occurring on the sea bottom and having five long slender arms radiating from a small central disc
- broadcasting — Broadcasting is the making and sending out of television and radio programmes.
- broca's area — the region of the cerebral cortex of the brain concerned with speech; the speech centre
- bronchospasm — an abnormal contraction of the bronchi resulting in restriction of the airway
- brontosaurus — any very large herbivorous quadrupedal dinosaur of the genus Apatosaurus, common in North America during Jurassic times, having a long neck and long tail: suborder Sauropoda (sauropods)
- brooks range — a mountain range in N Alaska. Highest peak: Mount Isto, 2761 m (9058 ft)
- brooks's law — (programming) "Adding manpower to a late software project makes it later" - a result of the fact that the expected advantage from splitting work among N programmers is O(N) (that is, proportional to N), but the complexity and communications cost associated with coordinating and then merging their work is O(N^2) (that is, proportional to the square of N). The quote is from Fred Brooks, a manager of IBM's OS/360 project and author of "The Mythical Man-Month". The myth in question has been most tersely expressed as "Programmer time is fungible" and Brooks established conclusively that it is not. Hackers have never forgotten his advice; too often, management still does. See also creationism, second-system effect, optimism.
- brushability — the quality of being brushable
- buccaneerish — of or relating to a buccaneer
- buck's party — a party for men only, esp one held for a man before he is married
- buenos aires — the capital of Argentina, a major port and industrial city on the Río de la Plata estuary: became capital in 1880; university (1821). Pop: 13 349 000 (2005 est)
- buffel grass — grass used for pasture in Africa, India, and Australia
- buffer state — A buffer state is a peaceful country situated between two or more larger hostile countries.
- bunco artist — a confidence trickster or con artist
- burkina faso — an inland republic in W Africa: dominated by Mossi kingdoms (10th–19th centuries); French protectorate established in 1896; became an independent republic in 1960; consists mainly of a flat savanna plateau. Official language: French; Mossi and other African languages also widely spoken. Religion: mostly animist, with a large Muslim minority. Currency: franc. Capital: Ouagadougou. Pop: 17 812 961 (2013 est). Area: 273 200 sq km (105 900 sq miles)
- burmese jade — jadeite of the finest quality: a true jade.
- burnt sienna — a reddish-brown dye or pigment obtained by roasting raw sienna in a furnace
- burro's tail — a succulent Mexican plant, Sedum morganianum, of the stonecrop family, bearing small, rose-colored flowers and long, hanging, nearly cylindrical stems with closely packed whitish-green leaves.
- burseraceous — of, relating to, or belonging to the Burseraceae, a tropical family of trees and shrubs having compound leaves and resin or balsam in their stems. The family includes bdellium and some balsams
- bush leaguer — Also called busher. Baseball. a player in a minor league. an incompetent player, as one who behaves or plays as if he or she belonged in a minor league.
- bush-leaguer — (in baseball) someone who plays in a minor league
- butter sauce — a sauce made of melted butter, often diluted with water, sometimes thickened with flour or egg yolk, or both, and seasoned with lemon juice.
- buzzards bay — arm of the Atlantic, on the SE coast of Mass., at the base of Cape Cod peninsula
- by reason of — If one thing happens by reason of another, it happens because of it.
- by-a-whisker — whiskers, a beard.
- byelorussian — Byelorussian means belonging or relating to Byelorussia or to its people or culture.
- bypass ratio — the ratio of the amount of air that bypasses the combustion chambers of an aircraft gas turbine to that passing through them
- cabbage rose — a rose, Rosa centifolia, with a round compact full-petalled head
- cabora bassa — the site on the Zambezi River in N Mozambique of the largest dam in southern Africa
- cabot strait — a channel in Canada, connecting the Gulf of St. Lawrence with the Atlantic Ocean. 68 miles (109 km) wide.
- caked breast — a painful hardening of one or more lobules of a lactating breast, caused by stagnation of milk in the secreting ducts and accumulation of blood in the expanded veins; stagnation mastitis.
- calabrasella — a card game for three persons that is played with a 40-card pack made by removing the eights, nines, and tens from a regular 52-card pack.
- calibrations — Plural form of calibration.
- canterburies — Plural form of canterbury.
- carbocations — Plural form of carbocation.
- carbohydrase — a digestive enzyme that breaks down carbohydrates through hydrolysis
- carbon brush — a small block of carbon used to convey current between the stationary and moving parts of an electric generator, motor, etc
- carbon steel — steel whose characteristics are determined by the amount of carbon it contains
- carbonaceous — of, resembling, or containing carbon
- carbonatites — Plural form of carbonatite.
- carnal abuse — Law. any lascivious contact with the sexual organs of a child by an adult, especially without sexual intercourse.
- cassel brown — Vandyke brown.
- catbird seat — an enviable position, as of power
- celebrations — Plural form of celebration.
- centerboards — Plural form of centerboard.
- cerebrations — Plural form of cerebration.
- chamberlains — Plural form of chamberlain.
- chambermaids — Plural form of chambermaid.