8-letter words containing u
- autoptic — relating to or belonging to personal observation
- autosave — a function on a computer that automatically saves data at regular intervals
- autosome — any chromosome that is not a sex chromosome
- autostat — (language) A language for statistical programming.
- autostop — Hitchhiking.
- autotest — a motor race in which standard cars are driven around a racing circuit
- autotomy — the casting off by an animal of a part of its body, to facilitate escape when attacked
- autotune — a software package that automatically manipulates a recording of a vocal track until it is in tune regardless of whether or not the original performance was in tune
- autotype — a photographic process for producing prints in black and white, using a carbon pigment
- autotypy — (dated, photography) An early photographic process that produced autotypes using a carbon pigment.
- autozero — Autozeroing.
- autumnal — Autumnal means having features that are characteristic of autumn.
- autunite — a yellowish fluorescent radioactive mineral consisting of a hydrated calcium uranium phosphate in tetragonal crystalline form. It is found in uranium ores. Formula: Ca(UO2)2(PO4)2.10–12H2O
- auvergne — a region of S central France: largely mountainous, rising over 1800 m (6000 ft)
- auxiliar — (obsolete) auxiliary.
- auxocyte — any cell undergoing meiosis, esp an oocyte or spermatocyte
- auxology — (biology) The study of growth.
- aventure — (obsolete) Accident; chance; adventure.
- avernus' — a crater lake in S Italy, near Naples and the Tyrrhenian Sea, thought by ancients to be the entrance to the underworld.
- avicular — of or relating to small birds
- avifauna — all the birds in a particular region
- avoucher — a person who avouches
- avouches — to make frank acknowledgment or affirmation of; declare or assert with positiveness.
- avulsion — a forcible tearing away or separation of a bodily structure or part, either as the result of injury or as an intentional surgical procedure
- avulsive — Of or pertaining to an avulsion.
- awfulest — Superlative form of awful.
- awfulize — (psychotherapy) To react dramatically or catastrophically to distressing events.
- ayacucho — a city in SE Peru: nearby is the site of the battle (1824) that won independence for Peru. Pop: 150 000 (2005 est)
- ayurveda — an ancient medical treatise on the art of healing and prolonging life, sometimes regarded as a fifth Veda
- azimuths — Plural form of azimuth.
- azoturia — the condition of having excess nitrogen in the urine
- azureous — (zoology) of a fine blue color; azure.
- b supply — a battery or other source of power for supplying a constant positive voltage to the plate of a vacuum tube.
- babassus — Plural form of babassu.
- babirusa — a wild pig, Babyrousa babyrussa, inhabiting marshy forests in Indonesia. It has an almost hairless wrinkled skin and enormous curved canine teeth
- babouche — a Middle-Eastern, particularly Turkish, heelless slipper
- babruysk — a city in SE Belarus, in Europe, SE of Minsk.
- babushka — a headscarf tied under the chin, worn by Russian peasant women
- bacchius — a metrical foot of one short syllable followed by two long ones (◡ – –)
- bacillus — A bacillus is any bacterium that has a long, thin shape.
- back out — If you back out, you decide not to do something that you previously agreed to do.
- back rub — a form of massage in which the masseur rubs one's back
- back run — a period during which a particular process, as the flow of materials in manufacturing, is reversed.
- backburn — to clear (an area of scrub, bush, etc) by creating a new fire that burns in the opposite direction to the line of advancing fire
- backhaul — a return load of cargo; cargo which is carried by a vehicle on its return journey
- backrush — the return of water seaward, down the foreshore of a beach, following the uprush of a wave.
- baculine — relating to flogging with a rod
- baculite — an extinct species of mollusc from the Late Cretaceous period, fossils of which have been found ranging from 7cm to 2m in length
- bad luck — You can say 'Bad luck', or 'Hard luck', to someone when you want to express sympathy to them.
- badmouth — (informal) To criticize or malign, especially unfairly or spitefully.