14-letter words containing l, e, n
- at one's heels — just behind or following closely
- at one's peril — If you say that someone does something at their peril, you are warning them that they will probably suffer as a result of doing it.
- atlantic liner — a large passenger ship that regularly crosses the Atlantic Ocean
- atlantic ocean — the world's second largest ocean, bounded in the north by the Arctic, in the south by the Antarctic, in the west by North and South America, and in the east by Europe and Africa. Greatest depth: 9220 m (30 246 ft). Area: about 81 585 000 sq km (31 500 000 sq miles)
- attainableness — The state or quality of being attainable.
- attention line — a line of text after the address on a piece of correspondence, directing it to a particular person or department.
- augean stables — the stables, not cleaned for 30 years, where King Augeas kept 3000 oxen. Hercules diverted the River Alpheus through them and cleaned them in a day
- auger-electron — a nonradiative process in which an atom in an excited state undergoes a transition to a lower state by the emission of a bound electron (Auger electron) rather than by the emission of an x-ray.
- augmentatively — In an augmentative fashion.
- auld lang syne — Auld Lang Syne is a Scottish song about friendship that is traditionally sung as clocks strike midnight on New Year's Eve.
- autoenrollment — Automatic enrollment (especially of security certificates in a computer system).
- autoregulation — the continual automatic adjustment or self-regulation of a biochemical, physiological, or ecological system to maintain a stable state.
- auxiliary note — a nonharmonic note occurring between two harmonic notes
- auxiliary tone — a melodic ornamental tone following a principal tone by a step above or below and returning to the principal tone; embellishment.
- avalanche lily — a wildflower (Erythronium montanum) of the lily family, native to the mountain meadows of Washington and Oregon and blooming in June among the melting snowbanks
- avalanche wind — the wind that is created in front of an avalanche.
- avoidance play — a play by the declarer designed to prevent a particular opponent from taking the lead.
- axial skeleton — the bones that together comprise the skull and the vertebral column
- babbling error — (networking) An Ethernet node attempting to transmit more than 1518 data bytes - the largest allowed Ethernet packet. This is why the Maximum Transmission Unit for IP traffic on Ethernet is 1500.
- back clearance — runout (def 1b).
- back-clearance — Machinery. the gradual termination of a groove on the body of an object not ending there, as the upper termination of a flute in a twist drill. Also called back clearance. a space in a depressed area of an object into which a machine tool or grinding wheel may safely enter at the end of a pass or operation.
- back-pedalling — a retreat from or a retraction of a previously held view
- backbone cabal — (networking) A group of large-site administrators who pushed through the Great Renaming and reined in the chaos of Usenet during most of the 1980s. The cabal mailing list disbanded in late 1988 after a bitter internal cat-fight.
- backbreakingly — In a backbreaking manner.
- backflap hinge — Building Trades. flap (def 20a).
- bactrian camel — a two-humped camel, Camelus bactrianus, used as a beast of burden in the cold deserts of central Asia
- balance bridge — a bascule bridge
- balance spring — hairspring.
- balance weight — a weight used in machines to counterbalance a part, as of a crankshaft
- balanced valve — a valve designed so that pressure-induced forces from the fluid being controlled oppose one another so that resistance to opening and closing the valve is negligible.
- ballon d'essai — a project or policy put forward experimentally to gauge reactions to it
- balloon sleeve — a sleeve fitting tightly from wrist to elbow and becoming fully rounded from elbow to shoulder
- ballroom dance — a social dance, popular since the beginning of the 20th century, in conventional rhythms, such as the foxtrot and the quickstep
- balsaminaceous — of, relating to, or belonging to the Balsaminaceae, a family of flowering plants, including balsam and touch-me-not, that have irregular flowers and explosive capsules
- banach algebra — (mathematics) An algebra in which the vector space is a Banach space.
- banana problem — (programming, humour) From the story of the little girl who said "I know how to spell "banana", but I don't know when to stop". Not knowing where or when to bring a production to a close (compare fencepost error). One may say "there is a banana problem" of an algorithm with poorly defined or incorrect termination conditions, or in discussing the evolution of a design that may be succumbing to featuritis (see also creeping elegance, creeping featuritis).
- baptismal name — Christian name (def 1).
- barnacle goose — a N European goose, Branta leucopsis, that has a black-and-white head and body and grey wings
- barrier island — a long island, parallel to the coastline, formed from a ridge of sand (barrier beach) thrown up by the waves, that serves the shore as a protective barrier against tidal waves, storms, etc.
- batement light — a compartment of a window with tracery, the bottom of which is formed by the arched head of a compartment or compartments below.
- batting helmet — a rigid plastic cap with a sidepiece extending down over the ear, worn for protection while batting
- battle lantern — a portable, battery-operated light for emergency use aboard a warship.
- battle station — the place or position that one is assigned to for battle or in an emergency.
- batwing sleeve — a sleeve of a garment with a deep armhole and a tight wrist
- bazillionaires — Plural form of bazillionaire.
- be in the loop — If someone is in the loop, they are part of a group of people who make decisions about important things, or they know about these decisions. If they are out of the loop, they do not make or know about important decisions.
- be on the ball — to be alert; be efficient
- bead lightning — lightning in which the intensity appears to vary along the path and which thus resembles a string of beads.
- bearded darnel — a grass, Lolium tementulum, related to rye, having bristles on the seed head and bearing seeds that yield a narcotic poison.
- bearer channel — (communications) Originally, a channel suited for carrying one voice-grade connection. Typically a DS0 channel. Compare data channel. (1997-03-7)