| asterisk | (noun) a star-shaped character * used in printing | Synonyms: star |
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| asterism | (noun) (astronomy) a cluster of stars (or a small constellation) | - |
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| (noun) (mineralogy) a star-shaped figure with six rays that is seen in some crystal structures under reflected or transmitted light | - |
| asteroid | (noun) any of numerous small celestial bodies composed of rock and metal that move around the sun (mainly between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter) | - |
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| atmometer | (noun) an instrument that measures rate of evaporation of water | Synonyms: evaporometer |
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| attempter | (noun) one who tries | Synonyms: essayer, trier |
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| attester | (noun) someone who affirms or vouches for the correctness or truth or genuineness of something | Synonyms: attestant |
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| attracter | (noun) a characteristic that provides pleasure and attracts | Synonyms: attraction, attractive feature, attractor, magnet |
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| (noun) (physics) a point in the ideal multidimensional phase space that is used to describe a system toward which the system tends to evolve regardless of the starting conditions of the system | Synonyms: attractor |
| (noun) an entertainer who attracts large audiences | Synonyms: attraction, attractor, draw, drawing card |
| audiometer | (noun) an instrument used to measure the sensitivity of hearing | Synonyms: sonometer |
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| austereness | (noun) extreme plainness | Synonyms: severeness, severity |
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| austerity | (noun) the trait of great self-denial (especially refraining from worldly pleasures) | Synonyms: asceticism, nonindulgence |
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| autostereotype | (noun) the standardized mental picture held in common by members of a cultural group depicting an oversimplified image of themselves and their behaviour. | - |
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| babysitter | (noun) a person engaged to care for children when the parents are not home | Synonyms: baby-sitter, sitter |
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| backbiter | (noun) one who attacks the reputation of another by slander or libel | Synonyms: defamer, libeler, maligner, slanderer, traducer, vilifier |
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| backwater | (noun) a place or condition in which no development or progress is occurring | - |
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| (noun) a body of water that was created by a flood or tide or by being held or forced back by a dam | - |
| bacteremia | (noun) transient presence of bacteria (or other microorganisms) in the blood | Synonyms: bacteriaemia, bacteriemia |
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| bacteria | (noun) (microbiology) single-celled or noncellular spherical or spiral or rod-shaped organisms lacking chlorophyll that reproduce by fission; important as pathogens and for biochemical properties; taxonomy is difficult; often considered to be plants | Synonyms: bacterium |
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| bacteriacide | (noun) any chemical agent that destroys bacteria | Synonyms: bactericide |
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| bacteriaemia | (noun) transient presence of bacteria (or other microorganisms) in the blood | Synonyms: bacteremia, bacteriemia |
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| bactericide | (noun) any drug that destroys bacteria or inhibits their growth | Synonyms: antibacterial, antibacterial drug |
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| (noun) any chemical agent that destroys bacteria | Synonyms: bacteriacide |
| bacteriemia | (noun) transient presence of bacteria (or other microorganisms) in the blood | Synonyms: bacteremia, bacteriaemia |
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| bacteriochlorophyll | (noun) a substance in photosensitive bacteria that is related to but different from chlorophyll of higher plants | - |
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| bacteriologist | (noun) a biologist who studies bacteria | - |
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| bacteriology | (noun) the branch of medical science that studies bacteria in relation to disease | - |
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| bacteriolysis | (noun) dissolution or destruction of bacteria | - |
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| bacteriophage | (noun) a virus that is parasitic (reproduces itself) in bacteria | Synonyms: phage |
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| bacteriostasis | (noun) inhibition of the growth of bacteria | - |
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| bacteriostat | (noun) a chemical or biological material that inhibits bacterial growth | - |
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| bacterium | (noun) (microbiology) single-celled or noncellular spherical or spiral or rod-shaped organisms lacking chlorophyll that reproduce by fission; important as pathogens and for biochemical properties; taxonomy is difficult; often considered to be plants | Synonyms: bacteria |
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| bacteroid | (noun) a rodlike bacterium (especially any of the rod-shaped or branched bacteria in the root nodules of nitrogen-fixing plants) | - |
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| baluster | (noun) one of a number of closely spaced supports for a railing | - |
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| balusters | (noun) a railing at the side of a staircase or balcony to prevent people from falling | Synonyms: balustrade, banister, bannister, handrail |
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| bandmaster | (noun) the conductor of a band | - |
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| banister | (noun) a railing at the side of a staircase or balcony to prevent people from falling | Synonyms: balusters, balustrade, bannister, handrail |
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| bannister | (noun) a railing at the side of a staircase or balcony to prevent people from falling | Synonyms: balusters, balustrade, banister, handrail |
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| banter | (noun) light teasing repartee | Synonyms: backchat, give-and-take, raillery |
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| baptistery | (noun) bowl for baptismal water | Synonyms: baptismal font, baptistry, font |
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| barometer | (noun) an instrument that measures atmospheric pressure | - |
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| barrater | (noun) someone guilty of barratry | Synonyms: barrator |
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| barretter | (noun) a resistor inserted into a circuit to compensate for changes (as those arising from temperature fluctuations) | Synonyms: ballast, ballast resistor |
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| barrister | (noun) a British or Canadian lawyer who speaks in the higher courts of law on behalf of either the defense or prosecution | - |
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| barter | (noun) an equal exchange | Synonyms: swap, swop, trade |
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| barterer | (noun) a trader who exchanges goods and not money | - |
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| barycenter | (noun) (astronomy) the common center of mass around which two or more bodies revolve | - |
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| baster | (noun) a tube with a rubber bulb used to take up and release melted fat or gravy in order to moisten roasting meat | - |
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| (noun) a sewer who fastens a garment with long loose stitches | Synonyms: tacker |
| (noun) a cook who bastes roasting meat with melted fat or gravy | - |
| bathometer | (noun) an instrument that measures the depth of water | Synonyms: bathymeter |
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| bathymeter | (noun) an instrument that measures the depth of water | Synonyms: bathometer |
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| batter | (noun) a liquid or semiliquid mixture, as of flour, eggs, and milk, used in cooking | - |
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| (noun) (baseball) a ballplayer who is batting | Synonyms: batsman, hitter, slugger |
| battercake | (noun) a flat cake of thin batter fried on both sides on a griddle | Synonyms: flannel-cake, flannel cake, flapcake, flapjack, griddlecake, hot cake, hotcake, pancake |
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| battering | (noun) the act of subjecting to strong attack | Synonyms: banging |
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| battery | (noun) an assault in which the assailant makes physical contact | Synonyms: assault and battery |
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| (noun) the heavy fire of artillery to saturate an area rather than hit a specific target | Synonyms: barrage, barrage fire, bombardment, shelling |
| (noun) a device that produces electricity; may have several primary or secondary cells arranged in parallel or series | Synonyms: electric battery |
| (noun) a series of stamps operated in one mortar for crushing ores | Synonyms: stamp battery |
| (noun) a collection of related things intended for use together | - |
| (noun) group of guns or missile launchers operated together at one place | - |
| (noun) a unit composed of the pitcher and catcher | - |
| beater | (noun) an implement for beating | - |
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| (noun) a worker who rouses wild game from under cover for a hunter | - |
| bedsitter | (noun) a furnished sitting room with sleeping accommodations (and some plumbing) | Synonyms: bedsit, bedsitting room |
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| bedwetter | (noun) someone suffering from enuresis; someone who urinates while asleep in bed | Synonyms: bed wetter, wetter |
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| beefeater | (noun) officer in the (ceremonial) bodyguard of the British monarch | Synonyms: yeoman, yeoman of the guard |
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| begetter | (noun) a male parent (also used as a term of address to your father) | Synonyms: father, male parent |
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| better | (noun) something superior in quality or condition or effect | - |
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| (noun) the superior one of two alternatives | - |
| (noun) someone who bets | Synonyms: bettor, punter, wagerer |
| (noun) a superior person having claim to precedence | - |
| betterment | (noun) the act of relieving ills and changing for the better | Synonyms: amelioration, melioration |
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| (noun) a change for the better; progress in development | Synonyms: advance, improvement |
| (noun) an improvement that adds to the value of a property or facility | - |
| 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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| bilgewater | (noun) pretentious or silly talk or writing | Synonyms: baloney, boloney, bosh, drool, humbug, taradiddle, tarradiddle, tommyrot, tosh, twaddle |
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| bimester | (noun) a period of 2 months | - |
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| bioterrorism | (noun) terrorism using the weapons of biological warfare | Synonyms: biological terrorism |
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| bister | (noun) a water-soluble brownish-yellow pigment made by boiling wood soot | Synonyms: bistre |
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| biter | (noun) someone who bites | - |
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| bitter | (noun) the property of having a harsh unpleasant taste | Synonyms: bitterness |
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| (noun) the taste experience when quinine or coffee is taken into the mouth | Synonyms: bitterness |
| (noun) English term for a dry sharp-tasting ale with strong flavor of hops (usually on draft) | - |
| bittercress | (noun) any of various herbs of the genus Cardamine, having usually pinnate leaves and racemes of white, pink or purple flowers; cosmopolitan except Antarctic | Synonyms: bitter cress |
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| bittern | (noun) relatively small compact tawny-brown heron with nocturnal habits and a booming cry; found in marshes | - |
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| bitterness | (noun) the property of having a harsh unpleasant taste | Synonyms: bitter |
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| (noun) a rough and bitter manner | Synonyms: acerbity, acrimony, jaundice, tartness, thorniness |
| (noun) the taste experience when quinine or coffee is taken into the mouth | Synonyms: bitter |
| (noun) a feeling of deep and bitter anger and ill-will | Synonyms: gall, rancor, rancour, resentment |
| bitternut | (noun) hickory of the eastern United States having a leaves with 7 or 9 leaflets and thin-shelled very bitter nuts | Synonyms: bitter hickory, bitter pignut, bitternut hickory, Carya cordiformis, swamp hickory |
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| bitterroot | (noun) showy succulent ground-hugging plant of Rocky Mountains regions having deep to pale pink flowers and fleshy farinaceous roots; the Montana state flower | Synonyms: Lewisia rediviva |
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| bitters | (noun) alcoholic liquor flavored with bitter herbs and roots | - |
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| bittersweet | (noun) twining shrub of North America having yellow capsules enclosing scarlet seeds | Synonyms: American bittersweet, Celastrus scandens, climbing bittersweet, false bittersweet, shrubby bittersweet, staff vine, waxwork |
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| (noun) poisonous perennial Old World vine having violet flowers and oval coral-red berries; widespread weed in North America | Synonyms: bittersweet nightshade, climbing nightshade, deadly nightshade, poisonous nightshade, Solanum dulcamara, woody nightshade |
| bitterweed | (noun) any of numerous chiefly North American weedy plants constituting the genus Ambrosia that produce highly allergenic pollen responsible for much hay fever and asthma | Synonyms: ambrosia, ragweed |
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| (noun) widespread European weed with spiny tongue-shaped leaves and yellow flowers; naturalized in United States | Synonyms: bristly oxtongue, bugloss, oxtongue, Picris echioides |
| bitterwood | (noun) handsome South American shrub or small tree having bright scarlet flowers and yielding a valuable fine-grained yellowish wood; yields the bitter drug quassia from its wood and bark | Synonyms: quassia, Quassia amara |
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| (noun) West Indian tree yielding the drug Jamaica quassia | Synonyms: Jamaica quassia, Picrasma excelsa, Picrasma excelsum |
| (noun) medium to large tree of tropical North and South America having odd-pinnate leaves and long panicles of small pale yellow flowers followed by scarlet fruits | Synonyms: paradise tree, Simarouba glauca |
| blackwater | (noun) any of several human or animal diseases characterized by dark urine resulting from rapid breakdown of red blood cells | - |
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| blaster | (noun) a workman employed to blast with explosives | Synonyms: chargeman |
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| blighter | (noun) a persistently annoying person | Synonyms: cuss, gadfly, pest, pesterer |
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| (noun) a boy or man | Synonyms: bloke, chap, cuss, fella, feller, fellow, gent, lad |
| blister | (noun) (pathology) an elevation of the skin filled with serous fluid | Synonyms: bleb, bulla |
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| (noun) (botany) a swelling on a plant similar to that on the skin | - |
| (noun) a flaw on a surface resulting when an applied substance does not adhere (as an air bubble in a coat of paint) | - |
| blistering | (noun) the formation of vesicles in or beneath the skin | Synonyms: vesication, vesiculation |
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| bloater | (noun) large fatty herring lightly salted and briefly smoked | - |
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| blockbuster | (noun) an unusually successful hit with widespread popularity and huge sales (especially a movie or play or recording or novel) | Synonyms: megahit, smash hit |
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| (noun) a large bomb used to demolish extensive areas (as a city block) | - |
| blotter | (noun) the daily written record of events (as arrests) in a police station | Synonyms: charge sheet, day book, police blotter, rap sheet |
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| (noun) absorbent paper used to dry ink | Synonyms: blotting paper |
| bluster | (noun) a swaggering show of courage | Synonyms: bravado |
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| (noun) vain and empty boasting | Synonyms: braggadocio, rhodomontade, rodomontade |
| (noun) a violent gusty wind | - |
| (noun) noisy confusion and turbulence | - |
| blusterer | (noun) a person who causes trouble by speaking indiscreetly | Synonyms: loudmouth |
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| boaster | (noun) a very boastful and talkative person | Synonyms: blowhard, braggart, bragger, line-shooter, vaunter |
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| boater | (noun) a stiff hat made of straw with a flat crown | Synonyms: leghorn, Panama, Panama hat, sailor, skimmer, straw hat |
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| (noun) someone who drives or rides in a boat | Synonyms: boatman, waterman |
| boisterousness | (noun) the property of being noisy and lively and unrestrained | - |
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| (noun) a turbulent and stormy state of the sea | - |
| bolometer | (noun) an instrument that measures heat radiation; extremely sensitive | - |
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| bolster | (noun) a pillow that is often put across a bed underneath the regular pillows | Synonyms: long pillow |
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| bonesetter | (noun) someone (not necessarily a licensed physician) who sets broken bones | - |
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| booster | (noun) an additional dose that makes sure the first dose was effective | Synonyms: booster dose, booster shot, recall dose |
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| (noun) the first stage of a multistage rocket | Synonyms: booster rocket, booster unit, takeoff booster, takeoff rocket |
| (noun) an amplifier for restoring the strength of a transmitted signal | Synonyms: booster amplifier, booster station, relay link, relay station, relay transmitter |
| (noun) a thief who steals goods that are in a store | Synonyms: lifter, shoplifter |
| (noun) someone who is an active supporter and advocate | Synonyms: plugger, promoter |
| (noun) a person who backs a politician or a team etc. | Synonyms: admirer, champion, friend, protagonist, supporter |
| breakwater | (noun) a protective structure of stone or concrete; extends from shore into the water to prevent a beach from washing away | Synonyms: bulwark, groin, groyne, jetty, mole, seawall |
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| broadcaster | (noun) a mechanical device for scattering something (seed or fertilizer or sand etc.) in all directions | Synonyms: spreader |
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| (noun) someone who broadcasts on radio or television | - |
| broncobuster | (noun) a person who breaks horses | Synonyms: bronco buster, buster |
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| buckminsterfullerene | (noun) a spheroidal fullerene; the first known example of a fullerene | Synonyms: buckyball |
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| bullfighter | (noun) someone who fights bulls | Synonyms: toreador |
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| bullterrier | (noun) a powerful short-haired terrier originated in England by crossing the bulldog with terriers | Synonyms: bull terrier |
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| bunter | (noun) a batter who bunts | - |
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| burgomaster | (noun) a mayor of a municipality in Germany or Holland or Flanders or Austria | - |
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| burster | (noun) a quantity of explosive to be set off at one time | Synonyms: bursting charge, charge, explosive charge |
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