12-letter words containing s, e, c, r
- bag snatcher — a thief whose main tactic is to grab women's handbags and run off with them
- bald cypress — a tree, Taxodium distichum, of swampy areas of the southern U.S., having featherlike needles and cone-shaped projections growing up from the roots, yielding a hardwood used in construction, shipbuilding, etc.
- bandersnatch — a fictional creature created by Lewis Carroll in his poem Jabberwocky, and appearing also in The Hunting of the Snark and Through the Looking-Glass
- bank charges — penalties charged by a bank to a customer, for example when the customer's account is overdrawn or if a cheque is not honoured
- bankruptcies — Plural form of bankruptcy.
- barbecue set — a set of tools used for barbecuing
- barge course — the overhang of the gable end of a roof
- basket chair — a chair made of wickerwork; a wicker chair
- basmati rice — a variety of long-grain rice with slender aromatic grains, used for savoury dishes
- beachcombers — Plural form of beachcomber.
- beaumarchais — Pierre Augustin Caron de (pjɛr oɡystɛ̃ karɔ̃ də). 1732–99, French dramatist, noted for his comedies The Barber of Seville (1775) and The Marriage of Figaro (1784)
- beggar-ticks — any of various plants, such as the bur marigold and tick trefoil, having fruits or seeds that cling to clothing, fur, etc
- benefactress — a female benefactor
- berwickshire — (until 1975) a county of SE Scotland: part of the Borders region from 1975 to 1996, now part of Scottish Borders council area
- bicameralism — having two branches, chambers, or houses, as a legislative body.
- bichon frise — a small white poodle-like dog of European origin, with a silky, loosely curling coat
- bio-security — the precautions taken to protect against the spread of lethal or harmful organisms and diseases
- biochemistry — Biochemistry is the study of the chemical processes that happen in living things.
- biscay green — a yellowish green.
- biscuit ware — unglazed earthenware
- bismarck sea — an arm of the Pacific Ocean north of New Britain and north-east of New Guinea
- bitter cress — any plant belonging to the genus Cardamine, of the mustard family, having usually pinnate leaves and clusters of white, pink, or purple flowers.
- black forest — wooded mountain region in SW Germany
- black grouse — a large N European grouse, Lyrurus tetrix, the male of which has a bluish-black plumage and lyre-shaped tail
- black papers — unofficial papers criticizing government policy
- black scoter — a scoter of Eurasia and North America, Melanitta nigra, the adult male of which is black.
- black spruce — a coniferous tree, Picea mariana, of the northern regions of North America, growing mostly in cold bogs and having dark green needles
- black stream — a warm ocean current in the Pacific, flowing N along the E coast of Taiwan, NE along the E coast of Japan, and continuing in an easterly direction into the open Pacific.
- black sucker — a hog sucker, Hypentelium nigricans, of eastern U.S. streams.
- blister pack — a type of packet in which small items are displayed and sold, consisting of a transparent dome of plastic or similar material mounted on a firm backing such as cardboard
- blue succory — a composite garden plant, Catananche caerulea, of southern Europe, having very hairy leaves and blue flower heads, used by the ancients as a love potion.
- body scanner — a machine using X-rays and a computer, used in medicine to look for signs of disease, or in security operations to look for drugs, weapons, etc
- boot-scraper — a contraption consisting of an upright metal shape formerly placed outside some houses to enable people to scrape the mud from their boots before going in
- booze cruise — a day trip to a foreign country, esp from England across the English Channel to France, for the purposes of buying cheap alcohol, cigarettes, etc
- borosilicate — a salt of boric and silicic acids
- borscht belt — (sometimes initial capital letters) the hotels of the predominantly Jewish resort area in the Catskill Mountains, many of them offering nightclub or cabaret entertainment.
- bossier city — city in NW La., on the Red River opposite Shreveport: pop. 56,000
- box lacrosse — a form of lacrosse played indoors, usually on a hockey rink with a wooden floor, between two teams of six players.
- brachycerous — (of insects) having short antennae
- braunschweig — Brunswick
- brick cheese — a ripened, semisoft American cheese shaped like a brick and containing many small holes
- broca's area — the region of the cerebral cortex of the brain concerned with speech; the speech centre
- bronchoscope — an instrument for examining and providing access to the interior of the bronchial tubes
- broncobuster — (in the western US and Canada) a cowboy who breaks in broncos or wild horses
- brunelleschi — Filippo (fiˈlippo). 1377–1446, Italian architect, whose works in Florence include the dome of the cathedral, the Pazzi chapel of Santa Croce, and the church of San Lorenzo
- buccaneerish — of or relating to a buccaneer
- buffer stock — a stock of a commodity built up by a government or trade organization with the object of using it to stabilize prices
- 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
- butcher shop — a shop in which meat, poultry, and sometimes fish are sold.
- 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.