16-letter words containing l, e, n
- attorney general — A country's Attorney General is its chief law officer, who advises its government or ruler.
- auction pinochle — a variety of pinochle for three to five players in which, for every hand, there are three active players, each dealt 15 cards, with the highest bidder winning the contract and playing against the other two active opponents.
- aureate language — a style of poetic diction, used originally in 15th-century English poetry, characterized by the use of ornate phrases and Latinized coinages.
- australian rules — a game resembling rugby football, played in Australia between teams of 18 men each on an oval pitch, with a ball resembling a large rugby ball. Players attempt to kick the ball between posts (without crossbars) at either end of the pitch, scoring six points for a goal (between the two main posts) and one point for a behind (between either of two outer posts and the main posts). They may punch or kick the ball and run with it provided that they bounce it every ten yards
- autofluorescence — (biology, microscopy) Self-induced fluorescence.
- autumnal equinox — the time at which the sun crosses the plane of the equator away from the relevant hemisphere, making day and night of equal length. It occurs about Sept 23 in the N hemisphere (March 21 in the S hemisphere)
- avail oneself of — to make use of to one's advantage
- avalon peninsula — a large peninsula of Newfoundland, between Trinity and Placentia Bays. Area: about 10 000 sq km (4000 sq miles)
- azuero peninsula — a peninsula in SW Panama, bordered on the E by the Gulf of Panama.
- babe-in-a-cradle — a tall orchid, Epiblema grandiflorum, of SW Australia with lilac to mauve flowers
- babylonian exile — the exile of the Jews, deported by Nebuchadnezzar into Babylonia in 597 b.c. and permitted to return by Cyrus in 538 b.c.
- bacterial canker — a disease of plants, characterized by cankers and usually by exudation of gum, caused by bacteria, as of the genera Pseudomonas and Corynebacterium.
- bacterioplankton — (biology) The bacterial component of marine plankton.
- baggage handling — the work of dealing with and sorting passengers' baggage at an airport
- balance of power — The balance of power is the way in which power is distributed between rival groups or countries.
- balance of trade — A country's balance of trade is the difference in value, over a period of time, between the goods it imports and the goods it exports.
- balance transfer — the act of transferring debt from one credit card to another, assuming that the second card has better terms or interest rates than the first
- balearic islands — a group of islands in the W Mediterranean, consisting of Majorca, Minorca, Ibiza, Formentera, Cabrera, and 11 islets: a province of Spain. Capital: Palma, on Majorca. Pop: 1 071 500 (2003 est). Area: 5012 sq km (1935 sq miles)
- balkan peninsula — a large peninsula in SE Europe, between the Adriatic and Aegean Seas
- ball-peen hammer — a hammer with one end of the head rounded and the other end flat
- balloon catheter — a type of catheter with a tiny, inflatable balloon at the tip, used in various surgical procedures
- balloon mortgage — A balloon mortgage is a mortgage on which the repayments are relatively small until the large final payment.
- balsamic vinegar — Balsamic vinegar is a type of vinegar which tastes sweet and is made from grape juice.
- baltimore canyon — a submarine valley cut into the continental shelf and slope seaward of Chesapeake Bay.
- banana republics — any of the small countries in the tropics, especially in the Western Hemisphere, whose economies are largely dependent on fruit exports, tourism, and foreign investors.
- band-pass filter — a filter that transmits only those currents having a frequency lying within specified limits
- bargaining level — the level within an organizational hierarchy, such as company level, national level, etc, at which collective bargaining takes place
- bargaining table — a table around which the parties involved in a negotiation sit
- basal anesthesia — anesthesia induced as a preliminary to further and deeper anesthesia
- basement complex — the undifferentiated assemblage of rock (basement rock) underlying the oldest stratified rocks in any region: usually crystalline, metamorphosed, and mostly, but not necessarily, Precambrian in age.
- basilar membrane — a membrane inside the cochlea that vibrates in response to sound
- bastard culverin — a 16th-century cannon, smaller than a culverin, firing a shot of between 5 and 8 pounds (11 and 17.6 kg).
- batlle y ordonez — José [haw-se] /hɔˈsɛ/ (Show IPA), 1856–1929, Uruguayan statesman: president of Uruguay 1903–07, 1911–15.
- bbn technologies — (company) A company, originally known as Bolt, Beranek and Newman, Inc. (BBN), based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. BBN were awarded the original contract to build the ARPANET and have been extensively involved in Internet development. They are responsible for managing NNSC, CSNET, and NEARnet. The language LOGO was developed at BBN, as was the BBN Butterfly supercomputer.
- be rolling in it — If you say that someone is rolling in it or is rolling in money, you mean that they are very rich.
- bearing pedestal — an independent support for a bearing, usually incorporating a bearing housing
- behavioural sink — a small area in which people or animals live in overcrowded conditions
- belgian malinois — one of a Belgian breed of medium-sized dogs having a short coat, tan to dark brown in color, a black mask, and erect ears, bred originally as a sheepherding dog.
- belgian sheepdog — any of a Belgian breed of large herding dog with a black coat, sometimes used as a guide dog
- belgian tervuren — one of a Belgian breed of medium-sized dogs having a long, straight coat, fawn to mahogany in color, differing from the Belgian sheepdog only in color.
- bells of ireland — an annual garden plant, Moluccella laevis, whose flowers have a green cup-shaped calyx: family Lamiaceae (labiates)
- beneficial owner — a person entitled to receive the profits or proceeds of property
- benguela current — a strong ocean current in the South Atlantic, flowing northward along the SW coast of Africa
- benito mussolini — Benito [buh-nee-toh;; Italian be-nee-taw] /bəˈni toʊ;; Italian bɛˈni tɔ/ (Show IPA), (I"Il Duce") 1883–1945, Italian Fascist leader: premier of Italy 1922–43.
- benoit samuelson — Joan (Joan Benoit) born 1957, U.S. distance runner: first Olympic marathon women's winner, 1984.
- benzotrichloride — a colorless or yellowish liquid, C 7 H 5 Cl 3 , used chiefly in the manufacture of dyes.
- benzotrifluoride — a colorless, flammable liquid, C 7 H 5 F 3 , used chiefly as an intermediate in the manufacture of dyes and pharmaceuticals, and as a solvent.
- benzoyl peroxide — a white, crystalline, water-insoluble, explosive solid, C 7 H 5 O 4 , used chiefly as a bleaching agent for flour, fats, oils, and waxes, and as a catalyst in polymerization reactions.
- berkeley network — (B-NET) Top level Unix Ethernet software developed at the University of California at Berkeley. There are no formal specifications but UCB's 4.2BSD Unix implementation on the VAX is the de facto standard. Distributed by Unisoft. Includes net.o driver routines for specific hardware, pseudo ttys, daemons, hostname command to set/get name, /etc/hosts database of names and Internet addresses of other hosts, /etc/hosts.equiv host-wide database to control remote access, .rhosts per user version of hosts.equiv. UCB's implementation of the Internet Protocol includes trailers to improve performance on paged memory management systems such as VAXen. These trailers are an exception to the Internet Protocol specification.
- bermuda triangle — an area in the Atlantic Ocean bounded by Bermuda, Puerto Rico, and Florida where ships and aeroplanes are alleged to have disappeared mysteriously