13-letter words starting with b
- bacteriolysis — the destruction or disintegration of bacteria
- bacteriolytic — disintegration or dissolution of bacteria.
- bacteriophage — a virus that is parasitic in a bacterium and multiplies within its host, which is destroyed when the new viruses are released
- bacteriophagy — the action of a bacteriophage
- bacterioscopy — the examination of bacteria with a microscope.
- bacteriostats — Plural form of bacteriostat.
- bacteriotoxin — any toxin that kills bacteria
- bacterization — subjection to bacterial action
- bad godesberg — official name of Godesberg.
- badminton cup — a long refreshing drink of claret with soda water and sugar
- baedeker raid — one of the German air raids in 1942 on places of cultural and historical importance in England
- bafana bafana — the official name for the South African national soccer team
- baffin island — the largest island of the Canadian Arctic, between Greenland and Hudson Bay. Area: 476 560 sq km (184 000 sq miles)
- bag of tricks — a container or receptacle of leather, plastic, cloth, paper, etc., capable of being closed at the mouth; pouch.
- bag of waters — a fluid-filled membranous sac in the pregnant uterus that encloses and cushions the fetus, normally breaking at or just before the time of birth; the amnion.
- bag-snatching — theft that involves snatching women's handbags
- baggage check — a receipt for baggage left in a checkroom
- baggage claim — At an airport, the baggage claim is the area where you collect your baggage at the end of your trip.
- baggage train — a train of wagons carrying the equipment needed by an army on the march
- baggagemaster — a person employed, especially by a railroad, bus company, or steamship line, to take charge of passengers' baggage.
- bahr el jebel — a river in S Sudan: a segment of the White Nile river. 594 miles (956 km) long.
- bail bondsman — an individual or firm that lends bail money to defendants awaiting trial
- bailey bridge — a temporary bridge made of prefabricated steel panels that can be rapidly assembled
- baily's beads — the brilliant points of sunlight that appear briefly around the moon, just before and after a total eclipse
- baker's dozen — thirteen
- baker's yeast — a yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) used in baking as a leavening, as for certain breads
- bakewell tart — an open tart having a pastry base and a layer of jam and filled with almond-flavoured sponge cake
- baking powder — Baking powder is an ingredient used in cake making. It causes cakes to rise when they are in the oven.
- balance shaft — a shaft in a vehicle engine that is designed to reduce the amount of vibration from other moving parts as it rotates
- balance sheet — A balance sheet is a written statement of the amount of money and property that a company or person has, including amounts of money that are owed or are owing. Balance sheet is also used to refer to the general financial state of a company.
- balance staff — a pivoted axle or shaft on which the balance is mounted.
- balance wheel — a wheel oscillating against the hairspring of a timepiece, thereby regulating its beat
- balanced diet — a diet consisting of the proper quantities and proportions of foods needed to maintain health or growth.
- balanced fund — a mutual fund made up of both stocks and bonds
- balanced line — a transmission line in which the oppositely directed components are symmetrical with respect to each other and to the ground.
- balanced step — any of a series of staircase winders so planned that they are nearly as wide at the inside of the stair as the adjacent fliers.
- balanced tree — (algorithm) An optimisation of a tree which aims to keep equal numbers of items on each subtree of each node so as to minimise the maximum path from the root to any leaf node. As items are inserted and deleted, the tree is restructured to keep the nodes balanced and the search paths uniform. Such an algorithm is appropriate where the overheads of the reorganisation on update are outweighed by the benefits of faster search. A B-tree is a kind of balanced tree that can have more than two subtrees at each node (i.e. one that is not restricted to being a binary tree).
- balancing act — If you perform a balancing act, you try to deal successfully with two or more people, groups, or situations that are in opposition to each other.
- balch springs — a town in NE Texas.
- balkan states — the countries of the Balkan Peninsula: the former Yugoslavian Republics, Romania, Bulgaria, Albania, Greece, and the European part of Turkey
- balkanization — If you disapprove of the division of a country into separate independent states, you can refer to the Balkanization of the country.
- ball and ring — a simplified bead-and-reel turning, used especially in English and American furniture of the 17th century.
- ball handling — the control of the ball, as in basketball or soccer, by skillful dribbling and accurate passing.
- ball the jack — a spherical or approximately spherical body or shape; sphere: He rolled the piece of paper into a ball.
- ballad stanza — a four-line stanza, often used in ballads, in which the second and fourth lines rhyme and have three stresses each and the first and third lines are unrhymed and have four stresses each
- ballet dancer — a man or woman who takes part in ballet dancing, usually professionally
- ballet lesson — a class in which ballet is taught
- ballet master — a man who teaches and rehearses the dancers in a ballet company
- ballet school — a school where professional ballet dancers are trained
- ballistically — of or relating to ballistics.