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16-letter words containing a, b, u, r, e

  • cathode ray tube — (hardware)   (CRT) An electrical device for displaying images by exciting phosphor dots with a scanned electron beam. CRTs are found in computer VDUs and monitors, televisions and oscilloscopes. The first commercially practical CRT was perfected on 29 January 1901 by Allen B DuMont. A large glass envelope containing a negative electrode (the cathode) emits electrons (formerly called "cathode rays") when heated, as in a vacuum tube. The electrons are accelerated across a large voltage gradient toward the flat surface of the tube (the screen) which is covered with phosphor. When an electron strikes the phosphor, light is emitted. The electron beam is deflected by electromagnetic coils around the outside of the tube so that it scans across the screen, usually in horizontal stripes. This scan pattern is known as a raster. By controlling the current in the beam, the brightness at any particular point (roughly a "pixel") can be varied. Different phosphors have different "persistence" - the length of time for which they glow after being struck by electrons. If the scanning is done fast enough, the eye sees a steady image, due to both the persistence of the phospor and of the eye itself. CRTs also differ in their dot pitch, which determines their spatial resolution, and in whether they use interlace or not.
  • cathode-ray tube — A cathode-ray tube is a device in televisions and computer terminals which sends an image onto the screen.
  • celebrity status — the prominence of film star, footballer, musician etc who is constantly photographed and written about in tabloids and magazines
  • cerulean warbler — a North American wood warbler, Dendroica cerulea, the male of which is blue above and white below.
  • charitable trust — a trust set up for the benefit of a charity that complies with the regulations of the Charity Commissioners to enable it to be exempt from paying income tax
  • chilean firebush — South American shrub with scarlet flowers
  • chromatic number — (mathematics)   The smallest number of colours necessary to colour the nodes of a graph so that no two adjacent nodes have the same colour. See also: four colour map theorem.
  • chuvash republic — a constituent republic of W central Russia, in the middle Volga valley: generally low-lying with undulating plains and large areas of forest. Capital: Cheboksary. Pop: 1 313 900 (2002). Area: 18 300 sq km (7064 sq miles)
  • clarified butter — butter with the water and milk solids removed, used for cooking at high temperatures without burning
  • cluster variable — RR Lyrae star.
  • commensurability — The quality of being commensurable or commensurate.
  • congeliturbation — the churning, heaving, and thrusting of soil material due to the action of frost.
  • consumer durable — Consumer durables are goods which are expected to last a long time, and are bought infrequently.
  • counterbalancing — Present participle of counterbalance.
  • cracked up to be — alleged or believed to be
  • cumberland sauce — a cold sauce made from orange and lemon juice, port, and redcurrant jelly, served with ham, game, or other meat
  • deboursification — (jargon)   Removal of irrelevant newsgroups from the Newsgroups header of a followup. The term applies particularly to the removal of frivolous groups added by one of the Kooks. See also: sneck.
  • debut appearance — debut
  • disequilibration — to put out of equilibrium; unbalance: A period of high inflation could disequilibrate the monetary system.
  • disreputableness — The state or quality of being disreputable or disgraceful; disreputability.
  • distributive law — a theorem asserting that one operator can validly be distributed over another
  • double monastery — a religious community of both men and women who live in separate establishments under the same superior and who worship in a common church.
  • double solitaire — a game of solitaire for two persons, each player usually having a pack and layout but pooling foundations with the opponent.
  • double-barrelled — A double-barrelled gun has two barrels.
  • double-breasting — the practice of employing nonunion workers, especially in a separate division, to supplement the work of higher-paid union workers.
  • drumhead cabbage — acommon type of cabbage with tightly packed leaves and a rounded form with a slightly flattened top
  • duplicate bridge — a form of contract bridge used in tournaments in which contestants play the identical series of deals, with each deal being scored independently, permitting individual scores to be compared.
  • east gwillimbury — a town in S Ontario, in S Canada.
  • elburz mountains — a mountain range in N Iran, parallel to the SW and S shores of the Caspian Sea. Highest peak: Mount Demavend, 5671 m (18 606 ft)
  • emotional labour — work that requires good interpersonal skills
  • fibonacci number — a number in the Fibonacci sequence, each of which is the sum of the previous two
  • filterable virus — a virus particle small enough to pass through a filter of diatomaceous earth or porcelain, which will not pass bacteria: chiefly historical or an informal indicator of size, as synthetic membrane filters now permit passage of the smallest virus.
  • flamborough head — a chalk promontory in NE England, on the coast of the East Riding of Yorkshire
  • flashbulb memory — the clear recollections that a person may have of the circumstances associated with a dramatic event
  • forbush decrease — the sudden decrease in the intensity of cosmic rays after an increase in solar activity.
  • four-deal bridge — a version of bridge in which four hands only are played, the players then cutting for new partners
  • four-masted brig — jackass bark (def 2).
  • gingerbread plum — a tree, Neocarya macrophylla, of western Africa, bearing a large, edible, starchy fruit.
  • globular cluster — a comparatively older, spherically symmetrical, compact group of up to a million old stars, held together by mutual gravitation, that are located in the galactic halo and move in giant and highly eccentric orbits around the galactic center.
  • great blue heron — a large American heron, Ardea herodias, having bluish-gray plumage.
  • ground substance — Also called matrix. the homogeneous substance in which the fibers and cells of connective tissue are embedded.
  • growth substance — any substance, produced naturally by a plant or manufactured commercially, that, in very low concentrations, affects plant growth; a plant hormone
  • have been around — be experienced
  • hawksbill turtle — a sea turtle, Eretmochelys imbricata, the shell of which is the source of tortoise shell: an endangered species.
  • heterometabolous — undergoing development in which the young are born adultlike in form, often maturing without a pupal stage.
  • horsehead nebula — a dark nebula in the constellation Orion, composed of opaque cosmic dust and resembling the head of a horse.
  • hybrid perpetual — a type of cultivated rose bred from varieties having vigorous growth and more or less recurrent bloom.
  • hydration number — the number of molecules of water with which an ion can combine in an aqueous solution of given concentration.
  • hyperreal number — any of the set of numbers formed by the addition of infinite numbers and infinitesimal numbers to the set of real numbers
  • imaginary number — Also called imaginary, pure imaginary number. a complex number having its real part equal to zero.
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