12-letter words starting with ba
- baker's oven — an oven used esp for baking bread
- baking sheet — A baking sheet is a flat piece of metal on which you bake foods such as biscuits or pies in an oven.
- baklava code — (humour, programming) Code with too many layers. Also known as Lasagne Code.
- balance beam — a long, narrow, horizontal wooden beam raised about 4 feet (1.2 m) above the floor, on which women gymnasts perform balancing routines consisting of jumps, tumbles, turns, running steps, etc.
- balance pipe — a pipe between two points used to equalize pressure
- bald cypress — a tree, Taxodium distichum, of swampy areas of the southern U.S., having featherlike needles and cone-shaped projections growing up from the roots, yielding a hardwood used in construction, shipbuilding, etc.
- baldwin park — city in SW Calif.: suburb of Los Angeles: pop. 76,000
- baleen whale — any of an order (Mysticeta) of whales with toothless jaws, baleen in the mouth, and a symmetrical skull, consisting of the gray whale, the right whales, and rorquals
- balinese cat — a breed of cat with medium-length silky hair, a plumed tail, blue eyes, large ears, and a dark mask, tail, and paws
- balkan frame — an overhead frame, fastened to a bed, from which a splinted, fractured leg or arm is suspended and held in traction.
- ball bearing — Ball bearings are small metal balls placed between the moving parts of a machine to make the parts move smoothly.
- ball breaker — an arduous, often unpleasant task.
- ball control — the skill of controlling the ball in a game such as football or tennis
- ball of fire — a very lively person
- ball turning — the turning of arms or legs on furniture to make them resemble a continuous row of balls.
- ball-breaker — an arduous, often unpleasant task.
- ball-carrier — the offensive player having the ball and attempting to gain ground.
- ballad metre — the metre of a ballad stanza
- ballad opera — an opera consisting of popular tunes to which appropriate words have been set, interspersed with spoken dialogue
- balladmonger — (formerly) a seller of ballads, esp on broadsheets
- ballanwrasse — a slow-growing fish (Labrus bergylta) found in rocky waters
- ballast line — the level to which a vessel is immersed when in ballast.
- ballet blanc — a ballet in which the ballerinas' skirts are white.
- ballet skirt — a full skirt, often made with several layers of fabric, typical of those worn by ballet dancers
- ballet suite — music written for a ballet but suitable or arranged for performance in an orchestral concert.
- balletically — in a balletic fashion; gracefully
- balletomanes — Plural form of balletomane.
- balletomania — passionate enthusiasm for ballet
- ballhandling — skill in handling the ball
- balloon loan — a loan in respect of which interest and capital are paid off in instalments at irregular intervals
- balloon sail — a large light bellying sail used in light winds
- balloon seat — (on some 18th-century chairs) a seat having an outline resembling that of a bell.
- balloon tire — a wide, deep-walled pneumatic tire with relatively low air pressure to lessen the shock of bumps
- balloon tyre — a pneumatic tyre containing air at a relatively low pressure and having a wide tread
- balloon vine — a tropical tendril-climbing sapindaceous plant, Cardiospermum halicacabum, cultivated for its ornamental balloon-like seed capsules
- ballot paper — A ballot paper is a piece of paper on which you indicate your choice or opinion in an election or ballot.
- ballottement — a technique of feeling for a movable object in the body, esp confirmation of pregnancy by feeling the rebound of the fetus following a quick digital tap on the wall of the uterus
- balsam apple — an ornamental cucurbitaceous vine, Momordica balsamina, of the Old World tropics, with yellow flowers and orange egg-shaped fruits
- balsamaceous — any of various fragrant exudations from certain trees, especially trees of the genus Commiphora, as balm-of-Gilead. Compare balm (def 1).
- balto-slavic — the Baltic and Slavic languages, when considered as constituting a subfamily within the Indo-European family of languages: the Baltic and Slavic branches are now generally considered by scholars as independently derived from Indo-European
- baluchithere — a hornless rhinoceros of the extinct genus Baluchitherium that inhabited central Asia during the Oligocene and early Miocene epochs: the largest land mammal known.
- banach space — a vector space on which a norm is defined that is complete.
- banalization — the process of becoming or making something banal
- banana label — (jargon) The labels used on the sides of macrotape reels, so called because they were shaped roughly like blunt-ended bananas. This term, like macrotapes themselves, is obsolete.
- banana prawn — a prawn of the genus Penaeus, fished commercially in tropical waters of N Australia
- banana shrub — a tall Chinese shrub, Michelia figo, of the magnolia family, having cream-yellow flowers with a reddish edge and a strong banana odor.
- banana split — A banana split is a kind of dessert. It consists of a banana cut in half along its length, with ice cream, nuts, and sauce on top.
- banbury cake — a cake consisting of a pastry base filled with currants, raisins, candied peel, and sugar, with a crisscross pattern on the top
- banbury tart — a tart filled with a lemon-flavored mixture of currants, raisins, or the like.
- band of hope — a society promoting lifelong abstention from alcohol among young people: founded in Britain in 1847