15-letter words containing u, r, a, e
- aurora borealis — the aurora seen around the North Pole
- australian pine — casuarina
- authoritatively — having due authority; having the sanction or weight of authority: an authoritative opinion.
- autobiographers — Plural form of autobiographer.
- autobiographies — Plural form of autobiography.
- autocorrelation — the condition occurring when successive items in a series are correlated so that their covariance is not zero and they are not independent
- autocorrelative — Relating to autocorrelation.
- autodestructive — likely to cause one's own destruction
- autofluorescent — Of, pertaining to, or exhibiting autofluorescence.
- automata theory — the formal study of the power of computation of abstract machines
- automatic drive — an automotive transmission requiring either very little or no manual shifting of gears.
- automatic rifle — a type of light machine gun capable of firing automatically or in single shots.
- autostereoscopy — The display of stereoscopic images without the use of special viewing equipment.
- autotetraploidy — the generation of the tetraploid state, created by the fusing of two nuclei from the same species
- autotransformer — a transformer in which part of the winding is common to both primary and secondary circuits
- average revenue — the total receipts from sales divided by the number of units sold, frequently employed in price theory in conjunction with marginal revenue.
- backup software — (tool, software) Software for doing a backup, often included as part of the operating system. Backup software should provide ways to specify what files get backed up and to where. It may include its own scheduling function to automate the procedure or, preferably, work with generic scheduling facilities. It may include facilities for managing the backup media (e.g. maintaining an index of tapes) and for restoring files from backups. Examples are Unix's dump command and Windows's ntbackup.
- bacteriophagous — Pertaining to the predation and consumption of bacterium.
- bad housekeeper — a person who is not an efficient and thrifty domestic manager
- balanced rudder — a rudder so designed that the center of water pressure on the forward face, when turned, lies about halfway along the length, minimizing the turning effort required.
- ballpark figure — approximate number
- banana republic — Small, poor countries that are politically unstable are sometimes referred to as banana republics.
- bangtail muster — a roundup of cattle to be counted, each one having the hairs on its tail docked as it is counted
- bargain counter — a store counter on which goods are displayed for sale at reduced prices
- barium chloride — a poisonous compound, BaCl2, consisting of flat white crystals that are soluble in water: it is used to treat water, metals, leather, etc.
- barium chromate — a yellow, crystalline compound, BaCrO 4 , used as a pigment (barium yellow)
- barium peroxide — a gray-white powder, BaO2, used as a bleach and in making hydrogen peroxide
- barium stearate — a white, crystalline, water-insoluble solid, Ba(C 18 H 35 O 2) 2 , used chiefly as a waterproofing agent and as a lubricant.
- barium sulphate — a white insoluble fine dense powder, used as a pigment, as a filler for paper, rubber, etc, and in barium meals. Formula: BaSO4
- barium titanate — a crystalline ceramic used in capacitors and piezoelectric devices. Formula: BaTiO3
- basic autocoder — Early system on IBM 7070. Listed in CACM 2(5):16 (May 1959).
- bayeux tapestry — an 11th- or 12th-century embroidery in Bayeux, nearly 70.5 m (231 ft) long by 50 cm (20 inches) high, depicting the Norman conquest of England
- beam-power tube — a vacuum tube in which the stream of electrons flowing to the plate is focused by the action of a set of auxiliary, charged elements, giving an increase in output power.
- bear animalcule — tardigrade (def 3).
- bearded vulture — lammergeier
- béarnaise sauce — a creamy sauce, esp. for meat or fish, made of butter and egg yolks and flavored with wine, vinegar, shallots, and herbs
- beast of burden — A beast of burden is an animal such as an ox or a donkey that is used for carrying or pulling things.
- benzyl butyrate — a liquid, C 11 H 14 O 2 , having a fruitlike odor, used as a plasticizer and in flavoring.
- bernoulli trial — one of a sequence of independent experiments each of which has the same probability of success, such as successive throws of a die, the outcome of which is described by a binomial distribution
- biblia pauperum — any of the picture books illustrating Biblical events and usually containing a short text, used chiefly in the Middle Ages for purposes of religious instruction.
- black horehound — a hairy unpleasant-smelling chiefly Mediterranean plant, Ballota nigra, having clusters of purple flowers: family Lamiaceae (labiates)
- blackberry bush — a bush on which blackberries grow
- blockade runner — a person, ship etc that tries to carry goods through a blockade
- blockade-runner — a ship or person that passes through a blockade.
- blue wood aster — a composite plant, Aster cordifolius, of North America, having heart-shaped leaves and pale-blue flowers.
- blue-eyed grass — any of various mainly North American iridaceous marsh plants of the genus Sisyrinchium that have grasslike leaves and small flat starlike blue flowers
- bluegrass state — Kentucky (used as a nickname).
- brachial plexus — a network of nerves in the armpits and neck, innervating the shoulders, arms, and hands.
- brake parachute — a parachute attached to the rear of a vehicle and opened to assist braking
- branching rules — rules that are used to break down a complex problem into several smaller problems