| bridle | (noun) the act of restraining power or action or limiting excess | Synonyms: check, curb |
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| (noun) headgear for a horse; includes a headstall and bit and reins to give the rider or driver control | - |
| briefcase | (noun) a case with a handle; for carrying papers or files or books | - |
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| brigade | (noun) army unit smaller than a division, typically consisting of a small number of battalions | - |
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| brigandine | (noun) a medieval coat of chain mail consisting of metal rings sewn onto leather or cloth | - |
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| brigantine | (noun) two-masted sailing vessel square-rigged on the foremast and fore-and-aft rigged on the mainmast | Synonyms: hermaphrodite brig |
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| brilliance | (noun) a light within the field of vision that is brighter than the brightness to which the eyes are adapted | Synonyms: blaze, glare |
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| (noun) the quality of being magnificent or splendid or grand | Synonyms: grandeur, grandness, magnificence, splendor, splendour |
| (noun) unusual mental ability | Synonyms: genius |
| brilliantine | (noun) a pomade to make the hair manageable and lustrous | - |
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| brimstone | (noun) an old name for sulfur | Synonyms: native sulfur, native sulphur |
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| brine | (noun) a strong solution of salt and water used for pickling | - |
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| (noun) water containing salts | Synonyms: saltwater, seawater |
| brioche | (noun) a light roll rich with eggs and butter and somewhat sweet | - |
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| briquette | (noun) a block made from charcoal or coal dust and burned as fuel | Synonyms: briquet |
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| brisance | (noun) the shattering or crushing effect of a sudden release of energy as in an explosion | - |
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| bristle | (noun) a stiff hair | - |
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| (noun) a stiff fiber (coarse hair or filament); natural or synthetic | - |
| brittle | (noun) caramelized sugar cooled in thin sheets | Synonyms: toffee, toffy |
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| broadaxe | (noun) a large ax with a broad cutting blade | Synonyms: broadax |
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| broadside | (noun) the simultaneous firing of all the armament on one side of a warship | - |
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| (noun) the whole side of a vessel from stem to stern | - |
| (noun) all of the armament that is fired from one side of a warship | - |
| (noun) an advertisement (usually printed on a page or in a leaflet) intended for wide distribution | Synonyms: bill, broadsheet, circular, flier, flyer, handbill, throwaway |
| (noun) a speech of violent denunciation | Synonyms: philippic, tirade |
| brocade | (noun) thick heavy expensive material with a raised pattern | - |
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| brochette | (noun) a small spit or skewer | - |
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| brochure | (noun) a small book usually having a paper cover | Synonyms: booklet, folder, leaflet, pamphlet |
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| brogue | (noun) a thick and heavy shoe | Synonyms: brogan, clodhopper, work shoe |
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| brokerage | (noun) place where a broker conducts his business | Synonyms: brokerage house |
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| (noun) a stock broker's business; charges a fee to act as intermediary between buyer and seller | Synonyms: brokerage firm, securities firm |
| (noun) the business of a broker; charges a fee to arrange a contract between two parties | - |
| bromance | (noun) non-sexual but intense relationship between two men | - |
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| bromate | (noun) a chemical compound that contains the bromate ion. | - |
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| brome | (noun) any of various woodland and meadow grasses of the genus Bromus; native to temperate regions | Synonyms: bromegrass |
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| bromide | (noun) a trite or obvious remark | Synonyms: banality, cliche, commonplace, platitude |
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| (noun) any of the salts of hydrobromic acid; formerly used as a sedative but now generally replaced by safer drugs | - |
| bromine | (noun) a nonmetallic heavy volatile corrosive dark brown liquid element belonging to the halogens; found in sea water | Synonyms: atomic number 35, Br |
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| bronchiole | (noun) any of the smallest bronchial ducts; ending in alveoli | - |
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| bronchoscope | (noun) a slender tubular instrument used to examine the bronchial tubes | - |
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| bronze | (noun) a sculpture made of bronze | - |
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| (noun) an alloy of copper and tin and sometimes other elements; also any copper-base alloy containing other elements in place of tin | - |
| broodmare | (noun) a female horse used for breeding | Synonyms: stud mare |
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| brooklime | (noun) plant of western North America and northeastern Asia having prostrate stems with dense racemes of pale violet to lilac flowers | Synonyms: American brooklime, Veronica americana |
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| (noun) European plant having low-lying stems with blue flowers; sparsely naturalized in North America | Synonyms: European brooklime, Veronica beccabunga |
| brownie | (noun) square or bar of very rich chocolate cake usually with nuts | - |
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| (noun) (folklore) fairies that are somewhat mischievous | Synonyms: elf, gremlin, hob, imp, pixie, pixy |
| brownstone | (noun) a row house built of brownstone; reddish brown in color | - |
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| (noun) a reddish brown sandstone; used in buildings | - |
| browse | (noun) the act of feeding by continual nibbling | Synonyms: browsing |
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| (noun) reading superficially or at random | Synonyms: browsing |
| (noun) vegetation (such as young shoots, twigs, and leaves) that is suitable for animals to eat | - |
| brucine | (noun) a bitter alkaloid poison resembling strychnine and extracted from nux vomica | - |
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| bruise | (noun) an injury that doesn't break the skin but results in some discoloration | Synonyms: contusion |
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| brunette | (noun) a person with dark (brown) hair | Synonyms: brunet |
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| brute | (noun) a living organism characterized by voluntary movement | Synonyms: animal, animate being, beast, creature, fauna |
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| (noun) a cruelly rapacious person | Synonyms: beast, savage, wildcat, wolf |
| bryophyte | (noun) any of numerous plants of the division Bryophyta | Synonyms: nonvascular plant |
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| bubble | (noun) a dome-shaped covering made of transparent glass or plastic | - |
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| (noun) an impracticable and illusory idea | - |
| (noun) a speculative scheme that depends on unstable factors that the planner cannot control | Synonyms: house of cards |
| (noun) a hollow globule of gas (e.g., air or carbon dioxide) | - |
| buckeye | (noun) tree having palmate leaves and large clusters of white to red flowers followed by brown shiny inedible seeds | Synonyms: Aesculus hippocastanum, horse chestnut |
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| (noun) the inedible nutlike seed of the horse chestnut | Synonyms: conker, horse chestnut |
| buckle | (noun) fastener that fastens together two ends of a belt or strap; often has loose prong | - |
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| (noun) a shape distorted by twisting or folding | Synonyms: warp |
| buckminsterfullerene | (noun) a spheroidal fullerene; the first known example of a fullerene | Synonyms: buckyball |
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| budgie | (noun) small Australian parakeet usually light green with black and yellow markings in the wild but bred in many colors | Synonyms: budgereegah, budgerigar, budgerygah, grass parakeet, lovebird, Melopsittacus undulatus, shell parakeet |
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| bugbane | (noun) a plant of the genus Cimicifuga having flowers in long racemes or panicles reported to be distasteful to insects | - |
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| (noun) North American plant having large leaves and yellowish green flowers growing in racemes; yields a toxic alkaloid used medicinally | Synonyms: American hellebore, Indian poke, Veratrum viride, white hellebore |
| bugle | (noun) a brass instrument without valves; used for military calls and fanfares | - |
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| (noun) a tubular glass or plastic bead sewn onto clothing for decoration | - |
| (noun) any of various low-growing annual or perennial evergreen herbs native to Eurasia; used for ground cover | Synonyms: bugleweed |
| bulge | (noun) something that bulges out or is protuberant or projects from its surroundings | Synonyms: bump, excrescence, extrusion, gibbosity, gibbousness, hump, jut, prominence, protrusion, protuberance, swelling |
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| bullace | (noun) small wild or half-domesticated Eurasian plum bearing small ovoid fruit in clusters | Synonyms: Prunus insititia |
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| bullnose | (noun) a small carpenter's plane with the cutting edge near the front | Synonyms: bullnosed plane |
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| bumblebee | (noun) robust hairy social bee of temperate regions | Synonyms: humblebee |
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| bunce | (noun) a sudden happening that brings good fortune (as a sudden opportunity to make money) | Synonyms: bonanza, boom, godsend, gold rush, gravy, manna from heaven, windfall |
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| buncombe | (noun) unacceptable behavior (especially ludicrously false statements) | Synonyms: bunk, bunkum, guff, hogwash, rot |
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| bundle | (noun) a package of several things tied together for carrying or storing | Synonyms: sheaf |
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| (noun) a collection of things wrapped or boxed together | Synonyms: package, packet, parcel |
| (noun) a large sum of money (especially as pay or profit) | Synonyms: big bucks, big money, megabucks, pile |
| bungee | (noun) an elasticized rope | Synonyms: bungee cord |
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| bunghole | (noun) a hole in a barrel or cask; used to fill or empty it | - |
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| (noun) vulgar slang for anus | Synonyms: arse, arsehole, asshole |
| bungle | (noun) an embarrassing mistake | Synonyms: bloomer, blooper, blunder, boner, boo-boo, botch, flub, foul-up, fuckup, pratfall |
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| bunkmate | (noun) someone who occupies the same sleeping quarters as yourself | - |
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| burette | (noun) measuring instrument consisting of a graduated glass tube with a tap at the bottom; used for titration | Synonyms: buret |
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| burgrave | (noun) the military governor of a German town in the 12th and 13th centuries | - |
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| (noun) a nobleman ruling a German castle and surrounding grounds by hereditary right | - |
| burlesque | (noun) a theatrical entertainment of broad and earthy humor; consists of comic skits and short turns (and sometimes striptease) | - |
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| (noun) a composition that imitates or misrepresents somebody's style, usually in a humorous way | Synonyms: lampoon, mockery, parody, pasquinade, put-on, send-up, sendup, spoof, takeoff, travesty |
| burnoose | (noun) a long hooded cloak woven of wool in one piece; worn by Arabs and Moors | Synonyms: burnous, burnouse |
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| burnouse | (noun) a long hooded cloak woven of wool in one piece; worn by Arabs and Moors | Synonyms: burnoose, burnous |
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| burnside | (noun) facial hair that has grown down the side of a man's face in front of the ears (especially when the rest of the beard is shaved off) | Synonyms: mutton chop, side-whiskers, sideburn |
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| businesspeople | (noun) people who transact business (especially business executives) | Synonyms: business people |
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| buspirone | (noun) a drug (trade name BuSpar) designed specifically for anxiety | Synonyms: BuSpar |
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| bustle | (noun) a rapid active commotion | Synonyms: ado, flurry, fuss, hustle, stir |
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| (noun) a framework worn at the back below the waist for giving fullness to a woman's skirt | - |
| butacaine | (noun) a white crystalline ester that is applied to mucous membranes as a local anesthetic | Synonyms: butacaine sulfate |
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| butadiene | (noun) a gaseous hydrocarbon C4H6; used in making synthetic rubbers | - |
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| butane | (noun) occurs in natural gas; used in the manufacture of rubber and fuels | - |
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| butanone | (noun) colorless soluble flammable liquid ketone used as a solvent for resins and as a paint remover and in lacquers and cements and adhesives and cleaning fluids and celluloid | Synonyms: methyl ethyl ketone |
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| butene | (noun) any of three isomeric hydrocarbons C4H8; all used in making synthetic rubbers | Synonyms: butylene |
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| buteonine | (noun) any hawk of the genus Buteo | - |
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| butte | (noun) a hill that rises abruptly from the surrounding region; has a flat top and sloping sides | - |
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| buttonhole | (noun) a hole through which buttons are pushed | Synonyms: button hole |
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| butylene | (noun) any of three isomeric hydrocarbons C4H8; all used in making synthetic rubbers | Synonyms: butene |
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| bye | (noun) a farewell remark | Synonyms: adieu, adios, arrivederci, au revoir, auf wiedersehen, bye-bye, cheerio, good-by, good-bye, good day, goodby, goodbye, sayonara, so long |
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| (noun) an automatic advance to the next round in a tournament without playing an opponent | Synonyms: pass |
| bygone | (noun) past events to be put aside | Synonyms: water under the bridge |
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| byname | (noun) a familiar name for a person (often a shortened version of a person's given name) | Synonyms: cognomen, moniker, nickname, sobriquet, soubriquet |
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| byre | (noun) a barn for cows | Synonyms: cow barn, cowbarn, cowhouse, cowshed |
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| byrnie | (noun) a long (usually sleeveless) tunic of chain mail formerly worn as defensive armor | Synonyms: hauberk |
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| byte | (noun) a sequence of 8 bits (enough to represent one character of alphanumeric data) processed as a single unit of information | - |
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| cabbage | (noun) any of various types of cabbage | Synonyms: chou |
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| (noun) any of various cultivars of the genus Brassica oleracea grown for their edible leaves or flowers | Synonyms: Brassica oleracea, cultivated cabbage |
| (noun) informal terms for money | Synonyms: boodle, bread, clams, dinero, dough, gelt, kale, lettuce, lolly, loot, lucre, moolah, pelf, scratch, shekels, simoleons, sugar, wampum |
| cable | (noun) a very strong thick rope made of twisted hemp or steel wire | - |
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| (noun) a television system that transmits over cables | Synonyms: cable system, cable television, cable television service |
| (noun) a conductor for transmitting electrical or optical signals or electric power | Synonyms: line, transmission line |
| (noun) a telegram sent abroad | Synonyms: cablegram, overseas telegram |
| (noun) television that is transmitted over cable directly to the receiver | Synonyms: cable television |
| (noun) a nautical unit of depth | Synonyms: cable's length, cable length |
| caboodle | (noun) any collection in its entirety | Synonyms: bunch, lot |
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| caboose | (noun) a car on a freight train for use of the train crew; usually the last car on the train | Synonyms: cabin car |
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| (noun) the area for food preparation on a ship | Synonyms: cookhouse, galley, ship's galley |
| cabotage | (noun) navigation in coastal waters | - |
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| (noun) the exclusive right of a country to control the air traffic within its borders | - |
| cache | (noun) a hidden storage space (for money or provisions or weapons) | - |
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| (noun) (computer science) RAM memory that is set aside as a specialized buffer storage that is continually updated; used to optimize data transfers between system elements with different characteristics | Synonyms: memory cache |
| (noun) a secret store of valuables or money | Synonyms: hoard, stash |
| cacique | (noun) black-and-red or black-and-yellow orioles of the American tropics | Synonyms: cazique |
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| cackle | (noun) a loud laugh suggestive of a hen's cackle | - |
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| (noun) noisy talk | Synonyms: chatter, yack, yak, yakety-yak |
| (noun) the sound made by a hen after laying an egg | - |
| cacomistle | (noun) raccoon-like omnivorous mammal of Mexico and the southwestern United States having a long bushy tail with black and white rings | Synonyms: Bassariscus astutus, bassarisk, cacomixle, civet cat, coon cat, miner's cat, raccoon fox, ring-tailed cat, ringtail |
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| cacomixle | (noun) raccoon-like omnivorous mammal of Mexico and the southwestern United States having a long bushy tail with black and white rings | Synonyms: Bassariscus astutus, bassarisk, cacomistle, civet cat, coon cat, miner's cat, raccoon fox, ring-tailed cat, ringtail |
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| cadastre | (noun) a public register showing the details of ownership and value of land; made for the purpose of taxation | Synonyms: cadaster |
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| cadaverine | (noun) a colorless toxic ptomaine with an unpleasant odor formed during the putrefaction of animal tissue | - |
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| caddie | (noun) an attendant who carries the golf clubs for a player | Synonyms: golf caddie |
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| cadence | (noun) a recurrent rhythmical series | Synonyms: cadency |
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| (noun) the close of a musical section | - |
| (noun) (prosody) the accent in a metrical foot of verse | Synonyms: beat, measure, meter, metre |
| cadre | (noun) a nucleus of military personnel capable of expansion | - |
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| (noun) a small unit serving as part of or as the nucleus of a larger political movement | Synonyms: cell |
| cafe | (noun) a small restaurant where drinks and snacks are sold | Synonyms: coffee bar, coffee shop, coffeehouse |
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| caffeine | (noun) a bitter alkaloid found in coffee and tea that is responsible for their stimulating effects | Synonyms: caffein |
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| caffre | (noun) an offensive and insulting term for any Black African | Synonyms: caffer, kaffir, kafir |
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| cage | (noun) an enclosure made or wire or metal bars in which birds or animals can be kept | Synonyms: coop |
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| (noun) the net that is the goal in ice hockey | - |
| (noun) a movable screen placed behind home base to catch balls during batting practice | Synonyms: batting cage |
| (noun) something that restricts freedom as a cage restricts movement | - |