15-letter words containing b, u, c
- eustachian tube — part of the ear
- executive board — administrative committee
- false buckthorn — a spiny shrub or small tree, Bumelia lanuginosa, of the sapodilla family, native to the southern U.S., having gummy, milky sap and white, bell-shaped flowers and yielding a hard, light-brown wood.
- field ambulance — a mobile medical unit that accepts casualties from forward units, treating the lightly wounded and stabilizing the condition of the seriously wounded before evacuating them to a hospital
- four-ball match — a match, scored by holes, between two pairs of players, in which the four players tee off and the partners alternate in hitting the pair's ball having the better lie off the tee.
- fourth republic — the republic established in France in 1945 and replaced by the Fifth Republic in 1958.
- francis bushman — Francis X(avier) 1883–1966, U.S. film actor.
- francis turbine — a water turbine designed to produce high flow from a low head of pressure: used esp in hydroelectric power generation
- french mulberry — a shrub, Callicarpa americana, of the verbena family, of the south-central U.S. and the West Indies, having violet-colored fruit and bluish flowers.
- functionability — functional (def 3).
- galactic nebula — a nebula in the Milky Way.
- great barracuda — a large barracuda, Sphyraena barracuda, of Atlantic and western Pacific seas.
- groutlock brick — a brick chamfered on its inner angles to allow space for vertical and horizontal reinforcing rods sealed in grout.
- haemoglobinuric — relating to the presence of haemoglobin in the urine
- hercules beetle — a large Neotropical rhinoceros beetle, Dynastes hercules.
- hillbilly music — folk music combined with elements of popular music in which the banjo, fiddle, and guitar are principal instruments: a type of music that originated in mountain regions of the southern U.S.
- horned cucumber — a tropical African plant, Cucumis metuliferus, having fruit with spiky, orange skin and jellylike pulp that tastes like cucumbers.
- hubble constant — the ratio of the recessional velocity of galaxies to their distance from the sun, with current measurements of its value ranging from 50 to 100 km/sec per megaparsec.
- humpback bridge — arched bridge
- humpback salmon — a pink salmon inhabiting North Pacific waters: so-called because of the hump that appears behind the head of the male when it is ready for spawning.
- hybrid computer — a computer system containing both analog and digital hardware.
- hydraulic brake — a brake operated by fluid pressures in cylinders and connecting tubular lines.
- hypercoagulable — related to excessive coagulation of the blood or blood clots
- iceberg lettuce — a variety of lettuce having a cabbagelike head of crisp leaves.
- incalculability — The quality or state of being incalculable.
- incentive bonus — an extra payment made to an employee to reward good work
- incommensurable — not commensurable; having no common basis, measure, or standard of comparison.
- incommensurably — In an incommensurable manner; immeasurably.
- incommutability — The quality or state of being incommutable.
- indirect labour — work done in administration and sales rather than in the manufacturing of a product
- inexcusableness — The quality of being inexcusable.
- ingush republic — a constituent republic of S Russia: part of the Checheno-Ingush Autonomous Republic from 1936 until 1992. Capital: Magas (formerly at Nazran). Pop: 468 900 (2002). Area: 3600 sq km (1390 sq miles)
- inscrutableness — Inscrutability.
- interambulacral — relating to, or situated between, interambulacra
- interambulacrum — the area between two of an echinoderm's ambulacra
- intersubjective — comprehensible to, relating to, or used by a number of persons, as a concept or language.
- isotopic number — the number of neutrons minus the number of protons in an atomic nucleus.
- judicial branch — the branch of government charged with the interpretation of laws and the administration of justice; the judiciary.
- jukebox musical — a musical play or film that is based around a series of well-known popular songs
- kalmyk republic — a constituent republic of S Russia, on the Caspian Sea: became subject to Russia in 1646. Capital: Elista. Pop: 292 400 (2002). Area: 76 100 sq km (29 382 sq miles)
- kick the bucket — a deep, cylindrical vessel, usually of metal, plastic, or wood, with a flat bottom and a semicircular bail, for collecting, carrying, or holding water, sand, fruit, etc.; pail.
- lambda calculus — a formalized description of functions and the way in which they combine, developed by Alonzo Church and used in the theory of certain high-level programming languages
- lambda-calculus — (mathematics) (Normally written with a Greek letter lambda). A branch of mathematical logic developed by Alonzo Church in the late 1930s and early 1940s, dealing with the application of functions to their arguments. The pure lambda-calculus contains no constants - neither numbers nor mathematical functions such as plus - and is untyped. It consists only of lambda abstractions (functions), variables and applications of one function to another. All entities must therefore be represented as functions. For example, the natural number N can be represented as the function which applies its first argument to its second N times (Church integer N). Church invented lambda-calculus in order to set up a foundational project restricting mathematics to quantities with "effective procedures". Unfortunately, the resulting system admits Russell's paradox in a particularly nasty way; Church couldn't see any way to get rid of it, and gave the project up. Most functional programming languages are equivalent to lambda-calculus extended with constants and types. Lisp uses a variant of lambda notation for defining functions but only its purely functional subset is really equivalent to lambda-calculus. See reduction.
- livery cupboard — a cupboard with pierced doors, formerly used as a storage place for food.
- lubricating oil — an oily substance that is used to cover or treat machinery so as to lessen friction
- lucrezia borgia — Cesare [che-zah-re] /ˈtʃɛ zɑ rɛ/ (Show IPA), 1476?–1507, Italian cardinal, military leader, and politician.
- lumbar puncture — Medicine/Medical. puncture into the arachnoid membrane of the spinal cord, in the lumbar region, and withdrawal of spinal fluid, performed for diagnosis of the fluid, injection of dye for imaging, or administration of anesthesia or medication.
- luncheon basket — a basket that you put food in and take somewhere for a picnic
- magnetic bubble — a tiny mobile magnetized area within a magnetic material, the basis of one type of solid-state storage medium (magnetic bubble memory)
- manubial column — a triumphal column decorated with spoils of the enemy.