17-letter words containing t, a, l, e, n
- baby doll nightie — a short, frilly nightdress
- bachelor's button — any of several plants of a genus (Centaurea) of the composite family, that have scaly, vase-shaped bracts below the white, pink, or blue flowers; esp., the cornflower and knapweed
- bachelor's-button — any of various plants with round flower heads, especially the cornflower.
- back on the rails — If something is back on the rails, it is beginning to be successful again after a period when it almost failed.
- balance of nature — the stable state in which natural communities of animals and plants exist, maintained by adaptation, competition, and other interactions between members of the communit ies and their nonliving environment
- balance of terror — military deterrence based on the possession of weapons of mass destruction by opponents in a conflict
- balance the books — do accounting
- balanced literacy — a method of teaching reading in which phonics and whole language approaches are both used to maximize student learning.
- balanced sentence — a sentence consisting of two or more clauses that are parallel in structure.
- bald-faced hornet — any large, stinging paper wasp of the family Vespidae, as Vespa crabro (giant hornet) introduced into the U.S. from Europe, or Vespula maculata (bald-faced hornet or white-faced hornet) of North America.
- bangalore torpedo — an explosive device in a long metal tube, used to blow gaps in barbed-wire barriers
- barrel distortion — distortion of an image produced by an optical system that causes straight lines at image margins to bulge outwards
- basal anaesthesia — preliminary and incomplete anaesthesia induced to prepare a surgical patient for total anaesthesia with another agent
- base lending rate — a minimum interest rate on which financial institutions base the rates they use for lending
- battle of britain — (in World War II) the series of aerial combats that took place between British and German aircraft during the autumn of 1940 and that included the severe bombardment of British cities.
- beer and skittles — enjoyment or pleasure
- bell-hanger's bit — a bit for drilling small holes through studs or the like.
- benoit mandelbrot — (person) /ben'wa man'dl-bro/ Benoit B. Mandelbrot. The IBM scientist who wrote several original books on fractals and gave his name to the set he was discovered, the Mandelbrot set and coined the term "fractal" in 1975 from the Latin fractus or "to break".
- bill of adventure — a certificate made out by a merchant to show that goods handled by him and his agents are the property of another party at whose risk the dealing is done
- bill of attainder — (formerly) a legislative act finding a person guilty without trial of treason or felony and declaring him attainted
- binet-simon scale — a test comprising questions and tasks, used to determine the mental age of subjects, usually children
- biological parent — a parent who has conceived (biological mother) or sired (biological father) rather than adopted a child and whose genes are therefore transmitted to the child.
- bitter almond oil — almond oil (def 2).
- bitter-almond-oil — Also called sweet almond oil, expressed almond oil. a colorless to pale yellow fatty oil expressed from the seeds of the sweet almond, used in preparing perfumes and confections.
- black-box testing — functional testing
- blank endorsement — an endorsement on a bill of exchange, cheque, etc, naming no payee and thus making the endorsed sum payable to the bearer
- blessed sacrament — the consecrated elements of the Eucharist
- blood and thunder — A blood and thunder performer or performance is very loud and emotional.
- blood-and-thunder — sensationalism, violence, or exaggerated melodrama: a movie full of blood and thunder.
- bluegrass country — region in central Ky. where there is much bluegrass
- boat-billed heron — a nocturnal, tropical American wading bird (Cochlearius cochlearius) with a large, broad bill: it is the only member of a family (Cochleariidae) of wading birds
- body center plate — one of a pair of plates that fit together and support the body of a car on a truck, while allowing the truck to rotate with respect to the body. One plate (body center plate) is attached to the underside of the car body and the other (truck center plate) is part of the car truck.
- boolean operation — any operation in which each of the operands and the result take one of two values.
- boothia peninsula — a peninsula of N Canada: the northernmost part of the mainland of North America, lying west of the Gulf of Boothia, an arm of the Arctic Ocean
- boots and saddles — a bugle call formerly used in the US Cavalry to summon soldiers to mount
- bouncebackability — the ability to recover after a setback, esp in sport
- branch delay slot — delayed control-transfer
- brazilian peridot — a light yellowish-green tourmaline used as a gem: not a true peridot.
- breakdown voltage — the minimum applied voltage that would cause a given insulator or electrode to break down.
- breathe life into — revive, rejuvenate
- bronze star medal — a U.S. military decoration awarded for heroic or meritorious achievement or service in combat not involving aerial flight
- budgetary control — a system of managing a business by applying a financial value to each forecast activity. Actual performance is subsequently compared with the estimates
- bushman's singlet — a sleeveless heavy black woollen singlet, used as working clothing by timber fellers
- butacaine sulfate — a colorless, crystalline substance, (C18H30N2O2)2·H2SO4, used as a local anesthetic, esp. on mucous membranes
- butterfly bandage — a butterfly-shaped strip of adhesive medical tape used, when stitches are not required, to keep a deep cut or incision tightly closed while it heals
- buyers' inflation — inflation in which rising demand results in a rise in prices.
- cage zone melting — zone melting of a square bar of the material to be purified, done so that the impurities are concentrated at the corners.
- calcium carbonate — a white crystalline salt occurring in limestone, chalk, marble, calcite, coral, and pearl: used in the production of lime and cement. Formula: CaCO3
- calcium gluconate — a white, tasteless, water-soluble powder, CaC 12 H 22 O 14 , used as a dietary supplement to provide calcium.
- california nutmeg — a tall, pungently aromatic California evergreen tree, Torreya californica, of the yew family, having a fissured, gray-brown bark and small, purple-streaked, green fruit.