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13-letter words containing a, b, t

  • backbone site — A key Usenet, electronic mail and/or Internet site; one that processes a large amount of third-party traffic, especially if it is the home site of any of the regional coordinators for the Usenet maps. Notable backbone sites as of early 1993 include uunet and the mail machines at Rutgers University, UC Berkeley, DEC's Western Research Laboratories, Ohio State University and the University of Texas. Compare rib site, leaf site.
  • backformation — Alternative spelling of back-formation.
  • backing light — Also called backing striplight, backing strip. Theater. a striplight providing diffused illumination for the background of a stage set.
  • backing store — a computer storage device, usually a disk, that provides additional storage space for information so that it can be accessed and referred to when required and may be copied into the processor if needed
  • backing track — a recorded instrumental or vocal accompaniment for a pop singer or pop number
  • backscratcher — an implement with a long handle, used for scratching one's back
  • backstitching — Present participle of backstitch.
  • backwardation — the difference between the spot price for a commodity, including rent and interest, and the forward price
  • bacteriocidal — Alternative spelling of bactericidal.
  • bacteriogenic — Caused by bacteria.
  • bacteriologic — a branch of microbiology dealing with the identification, study, and cultivation of bacteria and with their applications in medicine, agriculture, industry, and biotechnology.
  • bacteriolysin — an antibody which, when it combines with bacterial cells, causes lysis of those cells, thus destroying them
  • 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
  • badminton cup — a long refreshing drink of claret with soda water and sugar
  • 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 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.
  • 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
  • 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.
  • balanced diet — a diet consisting of the proper quantities and proportions of foods needed to maintain health or growth.
  • 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.
  • 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 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.
  • ballistospore — a spore, esp a fungal spore, that is forcefully ejected from its source
  • balneotherapy — the treatment of disease by bathing, esp to improve limb mobility in arthritic and neuromuscular disorders
  • baltic shield — the wide area of ancient rock in Scandinavia
  • baltic states — the republics of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, which became constituent republics of the former Soviet Union in 1940, regaining their independence in 1991
  • baluster stem — a stem of a drinking glass or the like having a gradual swelling near the top or bottom.
  • bamboo shoots — the shoots of the bamboo plant, often used as food in Asian dishes
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