| arugula | (noun) erect European annual often grown as a salad crop to be harvested when young and tender | Synonyms: Eruca sativa, Eruca vesicaria sativa, garden rocket, rocket, rocket salad, roquette |
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| ashlar | (noun) a rectangular block of hewn stone used for building purposes | - |
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| assailability | (noun) vulnerability to forceful attack | - |
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| assailant | (noun) someone who attacks | Synonyms: aggressor, assaulter, attacker |
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| assemblage | (noun) the social act of assembling | Synonyms: assembly, gathering |
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| (noun) a system of components assembled together for a particular purpose | Synonyms: hookup |
| (noun) a group of persons together in one place | Synonyms: gathering |
| (noun) several things grouped together or considered as a whole | Synonyms: accumulation, aggregation, collection |
| assibilation | (noun) pronunciation with a sibilant (hissing or whistling) sound | Synonyms: sibilation |
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| (noun) the development of a consonant phoneme into a sibilant | - |
| assimilability | (noun) Capability of being taken in and utilized as nourishment. | - |
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| assimilation | (noun) in the theories of Jean Piaget: the application of a general schema to a particular instance | - |
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| (noun) the process of assimilating new ideas into an existing cognitive structure | Synonyms: acculturation |
| (noun) a linguistic process by which a sound becomes similar to an adjacent sound | - |
| (noun) the process of absorbing nutrients into the body after digestion | Synonyms: absorption |
| (noun) the social process of absorbing one cultural group into harmony with another | Synonyms: absorption |
| (noun) the state of being assimilated; people of different backgrounds come to see themselves as part of a larger national family | - |
| assimilator | (noun) someone (especially a child) who learns (as from a teacher) or takes up knowledge or beliefs | Synonyms: learner, scholar, student |
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| astrolabe | (noun) an early form of sextant | - |
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| astrolatry | (noun) the worship of planets or stars | Synonyms: worship of heavenly bodies |
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| atlas | (noun) a figure of a man used as a supporting column | Synonyms: telamon |
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| (noun) the 1st cervical vertebra | Synonyms: atlas vertebra |
| (noun) a collection of maps in book form | Synonyms: book of maps, map collection |
| auricula | (noun) a pouch projecting from the top front of each atrium of the heart | Synonyms: auricular appendage, auricular appendix |
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| (noun) yellow-flowered primrose native to Alps; commonly cultivated | Synonyms: bear's ear, Primula auricula |
| auriculare | (noun) the craniometric point at the center of the opening of the external acoustic meatus | Synonyms: auricular point |
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| autoalarm | (noun) a radio receiving device used on ships that rings an alarm bell when a distress signal is received. | Synonyms: auto-alarm |
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| autoclave | (noun) a device for heating substances above their boiling point; used to manufacture chemicals or to sterilize surgical instruments | Synonyms: steriliser, sterilizer |
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| autolatry | (noun) the worship of yourself | Synonyms: idiolatry, self-worship |
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| autoplasty | (noun) surgical repair by using tissue from another part of the patient's own body | - |
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| (noun) tissue that is taken from one site and grafted to another site on the same person | Synonyms: autograft |
| autoregulation | (noun) (physiology) processes that maintain a generally constant physiological state in a cell or organism | - |
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| availability | (noun) the quality of being at hand when needed | Synonyms: accessibility, availableness, handiness |
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| availableness | (noun) the quality of being at hand when needed | Synonyms: accessibility, availability, handiness |
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| avalanche | (noun) a slide of large masses of snow and ice and mud down a mountain | - |
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| (noun) a sudden appearance of an overwhelming number of things | - |
| axilla | (noun) the hollow under the arm where it is joined to the shoulder | Synonyms: armpit, axillary cavity, axillary fossa |
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| ayatollah | (noun) a high-ranking Shiite religious leader who is regarded as an authority on religious law and its interpretation and who has political power as well | - |
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| baccalaureate | (noun) an academic degree conferred on someone who has successfully completed undergraduate studies | Synonyms: bachelor's degree |
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| (noun) a farewell sermon to a graduating class at their commencement ceremonies | - |
| backblast | (noun) backfire from a recoilless weapon | Synonyms: back-blast |
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| backlash | (noun) an adverse reaction to some political or social occurrence | - |
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| (noun) a movement back from an impact | Synonyms: rebound, recoil, repercussion |
| backplate | (noun) plate armor protecting the back; worn as part of a cuirass | - |
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| backslapper | (noun) someone who demonstrates enthusiastic or excessive cordiality | - |
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| badlands | (noun) deeply eroded barren land | - |
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| baklava | (noun) rich Middle Eastern cake made of thin layers of flaky pastry filled with nuts and honey | - |
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| balaclava | (noun) a cap that is close-fitting and woolen and covers all of the head but the face | Synonyms: balaclava helmet |
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| balagan | (noun) a word for chaos or fiasco borrowed from modern Hebrew (where it is a loan word from Russian) | - |
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| balalaika | (noun) a stringed instrument that has a triangular body and three strings | - |
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| balance | (noun) a scale for weighing; depends on pull of gravity | - |
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| (noun) a weight that balances another weight | Synonyms: counterbalance, counterpoise, counterweight, equaliser, equalizer |
| (noun) a wheel that regulates the rate of movement in a machine; especially a wheel oscillating against the hairspring of a timepiece to regulate its beat | Synonyms: balance wheel |
| (noun) harmonious arrangement or relation of parts or elements within a whole (as in a design) | Synonyms: proportion, proportionality |
| (noun) (mathematics) an attribute of a shape or relation; exact reflection of form on opposite sides of a dividing line or plane | Synonyms: correspondence, symmetricalness, symmetry |
| (noun) equality between the totals of the credit and debit sides of an account | - |
| (noun) the difference between the totals of the credit and debit sides of an account | - |
| (noun) something left after other parts have been taken away | Synonyms: remainder, residual, residue, residuum, rest |
| (noun) equality of distribution | Synonyms: counterbalance, equilibrium, equipoise |
| (noun) a state of equilibrium | - |
| balancer | (noun) either of the rudimentary hind wings of dipterous insects; used for maintaining equilibrium during flight | Synonyms: halter, haltere |
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| (noun) an acrobat who balances himself in difficult positions | - |
| balancing | (noun) getting two things to correspond | Synonyms: reconciliation |
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| balanitis | (noun) inflammation of the head of the penis | - |
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| balanoposthitis | (noun) inflammation of both the head of the penis and the foreskin | - |
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| balas | (noun) a pale rose-colored variety of the ruby spinel | Synonyms: balas ruby |
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| balata | (noun) a tropical hardwood tree yielding balata gum and heavy red timber | Synonyms: balata tree, beefwood, bully tree, Manilkara bidentata |
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| (noun) when dried yields a hard substance used e.g. in golf balls | Synonyms: gutta balata |
| ballad | (noun) a narrative poem of popular origin | Synonyms: lay |
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| (noun) a narrative song with a recurrent refrain | Synonyms: lay |
| ballade | (noun) a poem consisting of 3 stanzas and an envoy | - |
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| balladeer | (noun) a singer of popular ballads | Synonyms: crooner |
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| ballast | (noun) any heavy material used to stabilize a ship or airship | - |
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| (noun) an electrical device for starting and regulating fluorescent and discharge lamps | Synonyms: light ballast |
| (noun) a resistor inserted into a circuit to compensate for changes (as those arising from temperature fluctuations) | Synonyms: ballast resistor, barretter |
| (noun) an attribute that tends to give stability in character and morals; something that steadies the mind or feelings | - |
| (noun) coarse gravel laid to form a bed for streets and railroads | - |
| ballplayer | (noun) an athlete who plays baseball | Synonyms: baseball player |
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| banderilla | (noun) a decorated dart that is implanted in the neck or shoulders of the bull during a bull fight | - |
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| bardolatry | (noun) the idolization of William Shakespeare | - |
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| barilla | (noun) Algerian plant formerly burned to obtain calcium carbonate | Synonyms: Halogeton souda |
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| (noun) bushy plant of Old World salt marshes and sea beaches having prickly leaves; burned to produce a crude soda ash | Synonyms: glasswort, kali, kelpwort, Salsola kali, Salsola soda, saltwort |
| bedlam | (noun) a state of extreme confusion and disorder | Synonyms: chaos, pandemonium, topsy-turvydom, topsy-turvyness |
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| bedlamite | (noun) an archaic term for a lunatic | - |
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| belay | (noun) something to which a mountain climber's rope can be secured | - |
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| belladonna | (noun) an alkaloidal extract or tincture of the poisonous belladonna plant that is used medicinally | - |
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| (noun) perennial Eurasian herb with reddish bell-shaped flowers and shining black berries; extensively grown in United States; roots and leaves yield atropine | Synonyms: Atropa belladonna, belladonna plant, deadly nightshade |
| bellarmine | (noun) a stoneware drinking jug with a long neck; decorated with a caricature of Cardinal Bellarmine (17th century) | Synonyms: greybeard, long-beard, longbeard |
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| bibliolatry | (noun) the worship of the Bible | Synonyms: Bible-worship |
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| bilabial | (noun) a consonant that is articulated using both lips; /p/ or /b/ or /w/ | - |
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| bilateralism | (noun) the property of being symmetrical about a vertical plane | Synonyms: bilateral symmetry, bilaterality |
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| bilaterality | (noun) the property of being symmetrical about a vertical plane | Synonyms: bilateral symmetry, bilateralism |
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| billabong | (noun) a branch of a river made by water flowing from the main stream only when the water level is high | - |
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| (noun) a stagnant pool of water in the bed of a stream that flows intermittently | - |
| binoculars | (noun) (plural) an optical instrument designed for simultaneous use by both eyes | Synonyms: field glasses, opera glasses |
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| bioflavinoid | (noun) a vitamin that maintains the resistance of cell and capillary walls to permeation | Synonyms: citrin, vitamin P |
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| biplane | (noun) old fashioned airplane; has two wings one above the other | - |
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| birthplace | (noun) the place where someone was born | Synonyms: place of birth |
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| (noun) where something originated or was nurtured in its early existence | Synonyms: cradle, place of origin, provenance, provenience |
| biteplate | (noun) a removable dental appliance that is worn in the palate for diagnostic or therapeutic purposes | Synonyms: bite plate |
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| blabber | (noun) one who reveals confidential information to the police or other authority | Synonyms: betrayer, informer, rat, squealer |
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| blabbermouth | (noun) someone who gossips indiscreetly | Synonyms: talebearer, taleteller, tattler, tattletale, telltale |
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| black | (noun) black clothing (worn as a sign of mourning) | - |
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| (noun) (board games) the darker pieces | - |
| (noun) the quality or state of the achromatic color of least lightness (bearing the least resemblance to white) | Synonyms: blackness, inkiness |
| (noun) total absence of light | Synonyms: blackness, lightlessness, pitch blackness, total darkness |
| blackamoor | (noun) a person with dark skin who comes from Africa (or whose ancestors came from Africa) | Synonyms: Black person |
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| blackball | (noun) the act of excluding someone by a negative vote or veto | Synonyms: barring |
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| blackbeetle | (noun) dark brown cockroach originally from orient now nearly cosmopolitan in distribution | Synonyms: Asiatic cockroach, Blatta orientalis, oriental cockroach, oriental roach |
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| blackberry | (noun) large sweet black or very dark purple edible aggregate fruit of any of various bushes of the genus Rubus | - |
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| (noun) bramble with sweet edible black or dark purple berries that usually do not separate from the receptacle | Synonyms: blackberry bush |
| blackbird | (noun) any bird of the family Icteridae whose male is black or predominantly black | Synonyms: New World blackbird |
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| (noun) common black European thrush | Synonyms: European blackbird, merl, merle, ousel, ouzel, Turdus merula |
| blackboard | (noun) sheet of slate; for writing with chalk | Synonyms: chalkboard |
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| blackbody | (noun) a hypothetical object capable of absorbing all the electromagnetic radiation falling on it | Synonyms: black body, full radiator |
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| blackbuck | (noun) common Indian antelope with a dark back and spiral horns | Synonyms: Antilope cervicapra, black buck |
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| blackcap | (noun) small brownish-grey warbler with a black crown | Synonyms: Silvia atricapilla |
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| (noun) chickadee having a dark crown | Synonyms: black-capped chickadee, Parus atricapillus |
| (noun) small black-headed European gull | Synonyms: Larus ridibundus, laughing gull, pewit, pewit gull |
| (noun) raspberry native to eastern North America having black thimble-shaped fruit | Synonyms: black raspberry, blackcap raspberry, Rubus occidentalis, thimbleberry |
| blackcock | (noun) male black grouse | Synonyms: black cock |
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| blackdamp | (noun) the atmosphere in a mine following an explosion; high in carbon dioxide and incapable of supporting life | Synonyms: chokedamp |
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| blackening | (noun) changing to a darker color | Synonyms: darkening |
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| blackface | (noun) the makeup (usually burnt cork) used by a performer in order to imitate a Negro | - |
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| blackfish | (noun) female salmon that has recently spawned | - |
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| (noun) small dark-colored whale of the Atlantic coast of the United States; the largest male acts as pilot or leader for the school | Synonyms: black whale, common blackfish, Globicephala melaena, pilot whale |
| (noun) large dark-colored food fish of the Atlantic coast of North America | Synonyms: tautog, Tautoga onitis |
| blackfly | (noun) small blackish stout-bodied biting fly having aquatic larvae; sucks the blood of birds as well as humans and other mammals | Synonyms: black fly, buffalo gnat |
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| (noun) blackish aphid that infests e.g. beans and sugar beets | Synonyms: Aphis fabae, bean aphid |
| blackguard | (noun) someone who is morally reprehensible | Synonyms: bounder, cad, dog, heel, hound |
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| blackhead | (noun) a black-tipped plug clogging a pore of the skin | Synonyms: comedo |
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| blackheart | (noun) heart cherry with dark flesh and skin | Synonyms: blackheart cherry |
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| (noun) any of various diseases in which the central tissues blacken | - |
| blacking | (noun) a substance used to produce a shiny protective surface on footwear | Synonyms: shoe polish |
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| blackjack | (noun) a gambling game using cards; the object is to hold cards having a higher count than those dealt to the banker up to but not exceeding 21 | Synonyms: twenty-one, vingt-et-un |
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| (noun) a piece of metal covered by leather with a flexible handle; used for hitting people | Synonyms: cosh, sap |
| (noun) a flag usually bearing a white skull and crossbones on a black background; indicates a pirate ship | Synonyms: black flag, Jolly Roger, pirate flag |
| (noun) a common scrubby deciduous tree of central and southeastern United States having dark bark and broad three-lobed (club-shaped) leaves; tends to form dense thickets | Synonyms: blackjack oak, jack oak, Quercus marilandica |
| blackleg | (noun) someone who works (or provides workers) during a strike | Synonyms: rat, scab, strikebreaker |
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| blacklist | (noun) a list of people who are out of favor | Synonyms: black book, shitlist |
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| blackmail | (noun) extortion of money by threats to divulge discrediting information | - |
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| blackmailer | (noun) a criminal who extorts money from someone by threatening to expose embarrassing information about them | Synonyms: extortioner, extortionist |
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| blackness | (noun) the quality or state of the achromatic color of least lightness (bearing the least resemblance to white) | Synonyms: black, inkiness |
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| (noun) total absence of light | Synonyms: black, lightlessness, pitch blackness, total darkness |
| blackout | (noun) a momentary loss of consciousness | - |
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| (noun) partial or total loss of memory | Synonyms: amnesia, memory loss |
| (noun) the failure of electric power for a general region | - |
| (noun) darkness resulting from the extinction of lights (as in a city invisible to enemy aircraft) | Synonyms: brownout, dimout |
| (noun) a suspension of radio or tv broadcasting | - |
| blackpoll | (noun) North American warbler having a black-and-white head | Synonyms: Dendroica striate |
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| blackseed | (noun) grass native to West Indies but common in southern United States having tufted wiry stems often infested with a dark fungus | Synonyms: carpet grass, smut grass, Sporobolus poiretii |
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| blacksmith | (noun) a smith who forges and shapes iron with a hammer and anvil | - |
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| blacksnake | (noun) blackish racer of the eastern United States that grows to six feet | Synonyms: black racer, Coluber constrictor |
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| (noun) large harmless shiny black North American snake | Synonyms: black rat snake, Elaphe obsoleta, mountain blacksnake, pilot blacksnake |
| blacktail | (noun) mule deer of western Rocky Mountains | Synonyms: black-tailed deer, blacktail deer, Odocoileus hemionus columbianus |
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| blackthorn | (noun) erect and almost thornless American hawthorn with somewhat pear-shaped berries | Synonyms: Crataegus calpodendron, Crataegus tomentosa, pear haw, pear hawthorn |
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| (noun) a thorny Eurasian bush with plumlike fruits | Synonyms: Prunus spinosa, sloe |
| blacktop | (noun) a black bituminous material used for paving roads or other areas; usually spread over crushed rock | Synonyms: blacktopping |
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