| bascule | (noun) a structure or device in which one end is counterbalanced by the other (on the principle of the seesaw) | - |
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| basileus | (noun) a ruler of the eastern Roman Empire | - |
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| basophile | (noun) a leukocyte with basophilic granules easily stained by basic stains | Synonyms: basophil |
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| bastille | (noun) a jail or prison (especially one that is run in a tyrannical manner) | - |
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| battle | (noun) a hostile meeting of opposing military forces in the course of a war | Synonyms: conflict, engagement, fight |
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| (noun) an energetic attempt to achieve something | Synonyms: struggle |
| (noun) an open clash between two opposing groups (or individuals) | Synonyms: conflict, struggle |
| battledore | (noun) an ancient racket game | Synonyms: battledore and shuttlecock |
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| (noun) a light long-handled racket used by badminton players | Synonyms: badminton racket, badminton racquet |
| battlefield | (noun) a region where a battle is being (or has been) fought | Synonyms: battleground, field, field of battle, field of honor |
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| battlefront | (noun) the line along which opposing armies face each other | Synonyms: front, front line |
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| battleground | (noun) a region where a battle is being (or has been) fought | Synonyms: battlefield, field, field of battle, field of honor |
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| battlement | (noun) a rampart built around the top of a castle with regular gaps for firing arrows or guns | Synonyms: crenelation, crenellation |
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| battler | (noun) someone who fights (or is fighting) | Synonyms: belligerent, combatant, fighter, scrapper |
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| battleship | (noun) large and heavily armoured warship | Synonyms: battlewagon |
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| battlesight | (noun) an arrangement of sights that makes possible the rapid aiming of a firearm at short ranges | Synonyms: battle sight |
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| battlewagon | (noun) large and heavily armoured warship | Synonyms: battleship |
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| bauble | (noun) cheap showy jewelry or ornament on clothing | Synonyms: bangle, fallal, gaud, gewgaw, novelty, trinket |
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| (noun) a mock scepter carried by a court jester | - |
| bawler | (noun) someone who communicates vocally in a very loud voice | Synonyms: bellower, roarer, screamer, screecher, shouter, yeller |
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| (noun) a loud weeper | - |
| beadle | (noun) a minor parish official who serves a ceremonial function | - |
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| beagle | (noun) a small short-legged smooth-coated breed of hound | - |
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| beetle | (noun) insect having biting mouthparts and front wings modified to form horny covers overlying the membranous rear wings | - |
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| (noun) a tool resembling a hammer but with a large head (usually wooden); used to drive wedges or ram down paving stones or for crushing or beating or flattening or smoothing | Synonyms: mallet |
| beetleweed | (noun) tufted evergreen perennial herb having spikes of tiny white flowers and glossy green round to heart-shaped leaves that become coppery to maroon or purplish in fall | Synonyms: coltsfoot, galax, Galax urceolata, galaxy, wandflower |
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| befuddlement | (noun) confusion resulting from failure to understand | Synonyms: bafflement, bemusement, bewilderment, mystification, obfuscation, puzzlement |
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| beguilement | (noun) an entertainment that provokes pleased interest and distracts you from worries and vexations | Synonyms: distraction |
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| (noun) magnetic personal charm | Synonyms: animal magnetism, bewitchery |
| beguiler | (noun) a person who charms others (usually by personal attractiveness) | Synonyms: charmer |
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| (noun) someone who leads you to believe something that is not true | Synonyms: cheat, cheater, deceiver, slicker, trickster |
| beleaguering | (noun) the action of an armed force that surrounds a fortified place and isolates it while continuing to attack | Synonyms: besieging, military blockade, siege |
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| belemnite | (noun) a conical calcareous fossil tapering to a point at one end and with a conical cavity at the other end containing (when unbroken) a small chambered phragmocone from the shell of any of numerous extinct cephalopods of the family Belemnitidae | - |
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| belittlement | (noun) the act of making a person or a thing seem little or unimportant. | - |
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| belle | (noun) a young woman who is the most charming and beautiful of several rivals | - |
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| benevolence | (noun) an act intending or showing kindness and good will | Synonyms: benefaction |
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| (noun) an inclination to do kind or charitable acts | - |
| (noun) disposition to do good | - |
| bestseller | (noun) a book that has had a large and rapid sale | Synonyms: best seller |
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| bible | (noun) a book regarded as authoritative in its field | - |
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| bibliophile | (noun) someone who loves (and usually collects) books | Synonyms: book lover, booklover |
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| bibliopole | (noun) a dealer in secondhand books (especially rare or curious books) | Synonyms: bibliopolist |
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| bicycle | (noun) a wheeled vehicle that has two wheels and is moved by foot pedals | Synonyms: bike, cycle, wheel |
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| bicycler | (noun) a person who rides a bicycle | Synonyms: bicyclist, biker, cyclist, wheeler |
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| bile | (noun) a digestive juice secreted by the liver and stored in the gallbladder; aids in the digestion of fats | Synonyms: gall |
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| bilestone | (noun) a calculus formed in the gall bladder or its ducts | Synonyms: gallstone |
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| billet | (noun) lodging for military personnel (especially in a private home) | - |
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| (noun) a short personal letter | Synonyms: line, note, short letter |
| bimillenary | (noun) a span of 2000 years | Synonyms: bimillennium |
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| (noun) the 2000th anniversary (or the celebration of it) | Synonyms: bimillennium |
| bimillennium | (noun) a span of 2000 years | Synonyms: bimillenary |
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| (noun) the 2000th anniversary (or the celebration of it) | Synonyms: bimillenary |
| bingle | (noun) a base hit on which the batter stops safely at first base | Synonyms: single |
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| binnacle | (noun) a nonmagnetic housing for a ship's compass (usually in front of the helm) | - |
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| bioelectricity | (noun) electric phenomena in animals or plants | - |
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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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| blackleg | (noun) someone who works (or provides workers) during a strike | Synonyms: rat, scab, strikebreaker |
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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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| blamelessness | (noun) a state of innocence | Synonyms: guiltlessness, inculpability, inculpableness |
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| blastocele | (noun) the fluid-filled cavity inside a blastula | Synonyms: blastocoel, blastocoele, cleavage cavity, segmentation cavity |
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| blastocoele | (noun) the fluid-filled cavity inside a blastula | Synonyms: blastocele, blastocoel, cleavage cavity, segmentation cavity |
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| bleach | (noun) the act of whitening something by bleaching it (exposing it to sunlight or using a chemical bleaching agent) | - |
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| (noun) the whiteness that results from removing the color from something | - |
| (noun) an agent that makes things white or colorless | Synonyms: blanching agent, bleaching agent, whitener |
| bleacher | (noun) a worker who bleaches (cloth or flour etc.) | - |
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| bleachers | (noun) (used in the plural) an outdoor grandstand without a roof; patrons are exposed to the sun as linens are when they are bleached | - |
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| bleakness | (noun) a bleak and desolate atmosphere | Synonyms: bareness, desolation, nakedness |
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| bleat | (noun) the sound of sheep or goats (or any sound resembling this) | - |
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| bleb | (noun) (pathology) an elevation of the skin filled with serous fluid | Synonyms: blister, bulla |
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| bleeder | (noun) someone who has hemophilia and is subject to uncontrollable bleeding | Synonyms: haemophile, haemophiliac, hemophile, hemophiliac |
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| bleeding | (noun) the flow of blood from a ruptured blood vessel | Synonyms: haemorrhage, hemorrhage |
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| bleep | (noun) a short high tone produced as a signal or warning | Synonyms: beep |
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| blemish | (noun) a mark or flaw that spoils the appearance of something (especially on a person's body) | Synonyms: defect, mar |
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| blend | (noun) the act of blending components together thoroughly | Synonyms: blending |
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| (noun) a new word formed by joining two others and combining their meanings | Synonyms: portmanteau, portmanteau word |
| (noun) an occurrence of thorough mixing | - |
| blende | (noun) an ore that is the chief source of zinc; consists largely of zinc sulfide in crystalline form | Synonyms: sphalerite, zinc blende |
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| blender | (noun) an electrically powered mixer with whirling blades that mix or chop or liquefy foods | Synonyms: liquidiser, liquidizer |
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| blending | (noun) a gradation involving small or imperceptible differences between grades | Synonyms: shading |
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| (noun) the act of blending components together thoroughly | Synonyms: blend |
| blennioid | (noun) elongated mostly scaleless marine fishes with large pectoral fins and reduced pelvic fins | Synonyms: blennioid fish |
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| blenny | (noun) small usually scaleless fishes with comb-like teeth living about rocky shores; are territorial and live in holes between rocks | Synonyms: combtooth blenny |
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| blepharism | (noun) condition in which a person blinks continuously | - |
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| blepharitis | (noun) inflammation of the eyelids characterized by redness and swelling and dried crusts | - |
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| blepharospasm | (noun) spasm of the eyelid muscle resulting in closure of the eye | - |
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| blessedness | (noun) a state of supreme happiness | Synonyms: beatification, beatitude |
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| blessing | (noun) the act of praying for divine protection | Synonyms: benediction |
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| (noun) the formal act of approving | Synonyms: approval, approving |
| (noun) a ceremonial prayer invoking divine protection | Synonyms: benediction |
| (noun) a short prayer of thanks before a meal | Synonyms: grace, thanksgiving |
| (noun) a desirable state | Synonyms: boon |
| blether | (noun) idle or foolish and irrelevant talk | Synonyms: chin music, idle talk, prate, prattle |
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| bletia | (noun) any of various orchids of the genus Bletia having pseudobulbs and erect leafless racemes of large purple or pink flowers | - |
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| bleu | (noun) cheese containing a blue mold | Synonyms: blue cheese |
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| blewits | (noun) edible agaric that is pale lilac when young; has a smooth moist cap | Synonyms: Clitocybe nuda |
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| bloodleaf | (noun) any plant of the genus Iresine having colored foliage | - |
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| bloodletting | (noun) formerly used as a treatment to reduce excess blood (one of the four humors of medieval medicine) | - |
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| (noun) indiscriminate slaughter | Synonyms: battue, bloodbath, bloodshed |
| bloodmobile | (noun) a motor vehicle equipped to collect blood donations | - |
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| blowhole | (noun) a hole for the escape of gas or air | Synonyms: vent-hole, vent, venthole |
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| (noun) the spiracle of a cetacean located far back on the skull | - |
| bluebottle | (noun) blowfly with iridescent blue body; makes a loud buzzing noise in flight | Synonyms: Calliphora vicina |
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| (noun) an annual Eurasian plant cultivated in North America having showy heads of blue or purple or pink or white flowers | Synonyms: bachelor's button, Centaurea cyanus, cornflower |
| bobble | (noun) the momentary juggling of a batted or thrown baseball | - |
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| bobsled | (noun) a long racing sled (for 2 or more people) with a steering mechanism | Synonyms: bob, bobsleigh |
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| (noun) formerly two short sleds coupled together | Synonyms: bobsleigh |
| bobsledding | (noun) riding on a bobsled | - |
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| bobsleigh | (noun) a long racing sled (for 2 or more people) with a steering mechanism | Synonyms: bob, bobsled |
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| (noun) formerly two short sleds coupled together | Synonyms: bobsled |
| boiler | (noun) sealed vessel where water is converted to steam | Synonyms: steam boiler |
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| (noun) a metal pot for stewing or boiling; usually has a lid | Synonyms: kettle |
| boilerplate | (noun) thick plate iron used in the production of boilers | - |
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| (noun) standard formulations uniformly found in certain types of legal documents or news stories | - |
| boilersuit | (noun) a loose protective coverall or smock worn over ordinary clothing for dirty work | Synonyms: boilers suit, overall |
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| bole | (noun) the main stem of a tree; usually covered with bark; the bole is usually the part that is commercially useful for lumber | Synonyms: tree trunk, trunk |
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| (noun) a soft oily clay used as a pigment (especially a reddish brown pigment) | - |
| bolero | (noun) a Spanish dance in triple time accompanied by guitar and castanets | - |
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| (noun) a short jacket; worn mostly by women | - |
| (noun) music written in the rhythm of the bolero dance | - |
| bolete | (noun) any fungus of the family Boletaceae | - |
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| bomblet | (noun) one of the smaller bombs that are released from a cluster bomb | Synonyms: cluster bomblet |
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| bonelet | (noun) a small bone; especially one in the middle ear | Synonyms: ossicle, ossiculum |
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| boodle | (noun) a gambling card game in which chips are placed on the ace and king and queen and jack of separate suits (taken from a separate deck); a player plays the lowest card of a suit in his hand and successively higher cards are played until the sequence stops; the player who plays a card matching one in the layout wins all the chips on that card | Synonyms: Chicago, Michigan, Newmarket, stops |
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| (noun) informal terms for money | Synonyms: bread, cabbage, clams, dinero, dough, gelt, kale, lettuce, lolly, loot, lucre, moolah, pelf, scratch, shekels, simoleons, sugar, wampum |
| bookdealer | (noun) a dealer in books; a merchant who sells books | Synonyms: book seller |
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| booklet | (noun) a small book usually having a paper cover | Synonyms: brochure, folder, leaflet, pamphlet |
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| bookmobile | (noun) a van with shelves of books; serves as a mobile library or bookstore | - |
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| bookseller | (noun) the proprietor of a bookstore | - |
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| boondoggle | (noun) work of little or no value done merely to look busy | - |
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| bootleg | (noun) the part of a boot above the instep | - |
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| (noun) whiskey illegally distilled from a corn mash | Synonyms: corn liquor, moonshine |
| bootlegger | (noun) someone who makes or sells illegal liquor | Synonyms: moonshiner |
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| bootlegging | (noun) the act of making or transporting alcoholic liquor for sale illegally | - |
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| (noun) the act of selling illegally or without permission | - |
| borecole | (noun) a hardy cabbage with coarse curly leaves that do not form a head | Synonyms: Brassica oleracea acephala, cole, colewort, kail, kale |
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