19-letter words containing a, b, u
- binocular disparity — the small differences in the positions of the parts of the images falling on each eye that results when each eye views the scene from a slightly different position; these differences make stereoscopic vision possible
- black forest gateau — a chocolate sponge cake containing morello cherries and whipped cream, with a topping of chocolate icing
- black-billed cuckoo — a black-billed North American cuckoo, Coccyzus erythropthalmus, that, unlike most cuckoos, constructs its own nest and rears its own young.
- blue stellar object — any of a class of blue celestial objects, at one time thought to be stars, that do not emit appreciable radio waves. Abbreviation: BSO.
- blue-breasted quail — a small, brightly colored quail, Coturnix chinensis, of southern Asia and Australia, widely kept as a cage bird.
- blue-tongued lizard — a large Australian lizard, Tiliqua scincoides, characterized by having a cobalt-blue tongue.
- board of trade unit — a unit of electrical energy equal to 1 kilowatt-hour
- bound hand and foot — with hands and feet tied
- boundary commission — (in Britain) a body established by statute to undertake periodic reviews of the boundaries of parliamentary constituencies and to recommend changes to take account of population shifts
- breathing apparatus — an apparatus, usually consisting of tanks of air or oxygen and a mouthpiece, that enables the wearer to breath in difficult conditions such as a smoke-filled building
- brown paper bag bug — (programming) A programming bug that is so stupid that it makes the programmer want to put a brown paper bag over his head.
- brush-tailed possum — any of several widely-distributed Australian possums of the genus Trichosurus
- bug tracking system — (programming) (BTS) A system for receiving and filing bugs reported against a software project, and tracking those bugs until they are fixed. Most major software projects have their own BTS, the source code of which is often available for use by other projects. Well known BTSs include GNATS, Bugzilla, and Debbugs.
- building contractor — an individual or company that contracts for the construction of houses, etc
- buildings insurance — insurance which covers buildings
- bulbourethral gland — Cowper's gland
- business accounting — the keeping of detailed accounts relating to a business or businesses
- buster brown collar — a medium-sized, starched collar with rounded edges, lying flat on the shoulders, worn by women and girls.
- butabarbital sodium — a barbiturate, C 10 H 15 N 2 NaO 3 , used as a sedative and hypnotic.
- buy a pig in a poke — to buy, get, or agree to something without sight or knowledge of it in advance
- by leaps and bounds — with unexpectedly rapid progess
- california bluebell — either of two plants, Phacelia campanularia or P. minor, of southern California, having ovate leaves and bell-shaped blue or purple flowers.
- canterbury pilgrims — the pilgrims whose stories are told in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales
- cerebrospinal fluid — the clear colourless fluid in the spaces inside and around the spinal cord and brain
- chamber of deputies — the lower house of the legislature of certain countries, as Italy.
- chlorofluorocarbons — Plural form of chlorofluorocarbon.
- circulating library — a small library circulated in turn to a group of schools or other institutions
- cobaltous hydroxide — a rose-red, amorphous, water-insoluble powder, Co 2 O 3 ⋅3H 2 O, used chiefly in the preparation of cobalt salts and in the manufacture of paint and varnish driers.
- cock and bull story — an absurd, improbable story presented as the truth: Don't ask him about his ancestry unless you want to hear a cock-and-bull story.
- cock-and-bull story — If you describe something that someone tells you as a cock-and-bull story, you mean that you do not believe it is true.
- connecticut warbler — a North American wood warbler, Oporornis agilis, olive-green above with a gray head and throat and yellow below.
- contagious abortion — brucellosis of domestic cattle, an infectious disease characterized by spontaneous abortion and caused by the bacterium Brucella abortus; Bang's disease.
- contributing factor — something that is partly responsible for a development or phenomenon
- convergent boundary — a major geologic discontinuity or suture marking the juncture of lithospheric plates that have been joined by plate tectonics.
- coordination number — the number of coordinated species surrounding the central atom in a complex or crystal
- corrosive sublimate — mercuric chloride
- cuboidal epithelium — epithelium consisting of one or more layers of cells of cuboid or polyhedral shape.
- cudgel one's brains — to think hard about a problem
- current liabilities — business liabilities maturing within a year
- darby and joan club — a club for elderly people
- de broglie equation — the postulate of wave mechanics that a particle of mass m moving at a velocity v will have the properties of a wave of wavelength h / mv (de Broglie wavelength) where h is Planck's constant.
- developable surface — a surface that can be flattened onto a plane without stretching or compressing any part of it, as a circular cone.
- differential backup — (operating system) A kind of backup that copies all files that have changed since the last full backup. Each differential backup will include all files in previous differential backups since the full backup so to restore a version of a file, you only need to search the full backup and the relevant differential backup. Some systems support differential backup by associating an "Archive" flag with each file and setting this flag whenever the file is modified to indicate that it should be included in the next backup. A differential backup does not change this flag, whereas an incremental backup resets it.
- disambiguation page — a page on a website that lists various websites or web pages that have or could have the same title. The user is able to select from the list that page, site etc that he or she actually wants
- distinguishableness — The state or quality of being distinguishable.
- double-helical gear — herringbone gear.
- dry-bulk cargo ship — a ship that carries an unpackaged dry cargo such as coal or grain; bulk carrier
- dutchman's-breeches — a plant, Dicentra cucullaria, of the fumitory family, having long clusters of pale-yellow, two-spurred flowers.
- east dunbartonshire — a council area of central Scotland to the N of Glasgow: part of Strathclyde region from 1975 until 1996: mainly agricultural and residential. Administrative centre: Kirkintilloch. Pop: 106 970 (2003 est). Area: 172 sq km (66 sq miles)
- ebola virus disease — Also called Ebola fever, Ebola hemorrhagic fever, Ebola virus disease. a usually fatal disease, a type of hemorrhagic fever, caused by the Ebola virus and marked by high fever, severe gastrointestinal distress, and bleeding.