12-letter words containing s, e, n, a, t
- bar sinister — the condition, implication, or stigma of being of illegitimate birth
- barnstormers — Plural form of barnstormer.
- base station — a fixed transmitter that forms part of an otherwise mobile radio network
- basementless — without a basement
- basketmaking — The construction of baskets, especially by traditional means.
- basset hound — A basset hound is a dog with short strong legs, a long body, and long ears. It is kept as a pet or used for hunting.
- battlefronts — Plural form of battlefront.
- battlewagons — Plural form of battlewagon.
- bean sprouts — the sprouts of newly germinated mung beans, eaten as a vegetable, esp in Chinese dishes
- bean-shooter — peashooter.
- bear witness — to give written or oral testimony
- beardtongues — Plural form of beardtongue.
- beauty salon — A beauty salon is the same as a beauty parlour.
- benefactress — a female benefactor
- beta orionis — Rigel
- beta testing — (programming) Evaluation of a pre-release (potentially unreliable) version of a piece of software (or possibly hardware) by making it available to selected users ("beta testers") before it goes on general distribution. Beta testign aims to discover bugs that only occur in certain environments or under certain patterns of use, while reducing the volume of feedback to a manageable level. The testers benefit by having earlier access to new products, features and fixes. Beta testing may be preceded by "alpha testing", performed in-house by a handful of users (e.g. other developers or friends), who can be expected to give rapid, high quality feedback on design and usability. Once the product is considered to be usable for its intended purpose it then moves on to "beta testing" by a larger, but typically still limited, number of ordinary users, who may include external customers. Some companies such as Google or Degree Jungle stretch the definition, claiming their products are "in beta" for many months by millions of users. The term derives from early 1960s terminology for product cycle checkpoints, first used at IBM but later standard throughout the industry. "Alpha test" was the unit test, module test or component test phase; "Beta Test" was initial system test. These themselves came from earlier A- and B-tests for hardware. The A-test was a feasibility and manufacturability evaluation done before any commitment to design and development. The B-test was a demonstration that the engineering model functioned as specified. The C-test (corresponding to today's beta) was the B-test performed on early samples of the production design.
- beta version — beta testing
- bien pensant — a right-thinking person
- billingsgate — the largest fish market in London, on the N bank of the River Thames; moved to new site at Canary Wharf in 1982 and the former building converted into offices
- biomagnetics — the study of magnetic fields as a form of therapy
- biomagnetism — animal magnetism.
- biting stage — the second part of the oral phase of psychosexual development, approximately 8 to18 months of age, during which a child has the urge to bite or chew objects.
- blandishment — the act of blandishing; cajolery
- blanket toss — a game in which a person is repeatedly tossed into the air and caught on an open blanket by a group of people who hold the blanket at its edges and stretch and relax it for each toss and catch.
- bloodstained — Someone or something that is bloodstained is covered with blood.
- bond servant — a person who serves in bondage; slave.
- bonnet glass — monteith (def 2).
- bonnet-glass — a large punch bowl, usually of silver, having a notched rim for suspending punch cups.
- brain teaser — A brain teaser is a question, problem, or puzzle that is difficult to answer or solve, but is not serious or important.
- brain-teaser — a puzzle or problem whose solution requires great ingenuity.
- brainstormer — a person who brainstorms
- burnt sienna — a reddish-brown dye or pigment obtained by roasting raw sienna in a furnace
- cablecasting — relating to broadcasting by cable
- cadent house — any of the four houses that precede the angles: the third, sixth, ninth, and twelfth houses, which correspond, respectively, to neighborhood and relatives, work and health, philosophy and foreign travel, and secret matters and service to others.
- calisthenics — Calisthenics are simple exercises that you can do to keep fit and healthy.
- callisthenes — c360–327 b.c, Greek philosopher: chronicled Alexander the Great's conquests.
- callisthenic — Alternative spelling of calisthenic.
- camping site — A camping site is the same as a campsite.
- cancer stick — a cigarette.
- candlesticks — Plural form of candlestick.
- candy stripe — a pattern of bright stripes of one color against a plain background, used chiefly in fabrics.
- cantankerous — Someone who is cantankerous is always finding things to argue or complain about.
- canterburies — Plural form of canterbury.
- capacitances — Plural form of capacitance.
- captiousness — The state of being captious.
- caravan site — A caravan site is an area of land where people can stay in a caravan on holiday, or where people live in caravans.
- carbon steel — steel whose characteristics are determined by the amount of carbon it contains
- carbonatites — Plural form of carbonatite.
- cardinalates — Plural form of cardinalate.
- carpet snake — a large nonvenomous Australian snake, Morelia variegata, having a carpetlike pattern on its back