bifurcation | (noun) the act of splitting into two branches | - |
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(noun) the place where something divides into two branches | - |
(noun) a bifurcating branch (one or both of them) | - |
biggin | (noun) a child's tight-fitting cap; often ties under the chin | - |
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bighorn | (noun) wild sheep of mountainous regions of western North America having massive curled horns | Synonyms: bighorn sheep, cimarron, Ovis canadensis, Rocky Mountain bighorn, Rocky Mountain sheep |
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bilirubin | (noun) an orange-yellow pigment in the bile that forms as a product of hemoglobin; excess amounts in the blood produce the yellow appearance observed in jaundice | Synonyms: haematoidin, hematoidin |
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billion | (noun) the number that is represented as a one followed by 9 zeros | Synonyms: 1000000000, one thousand million |
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(noun) the number that is represented as a one followed by 12 zeros; in the United Kingdom the usage followed in the United States is frequently seen | Synonyms: 1000000000000, one million million |
(noun) a very large indefinite number (usually hyperbole) | Synonyms: bazillion, gazillion, jillion, million, trillion, zillion |
bilocation | (noun) the ability (said of certain Roman Catholic saints) to exist simultaneously in two locations | - |
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bin | (noun) a container; usually has a lid | - |
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(noun) the quantity contained in a bin | Synonyms: binful |
bioremediation | (noun) the act of treating waste or pollutants by the use of microorganisms (as bacteria) that can break down the undesirable substances | - |
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(noun) the branch of biotechnology that uses biological process to overcome environmental problems | - |
biotin | (noun) a B vitamin that aids in body growth | Synonyms: vitamin H |
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bioweapon | (noun) any weapon usable in biological warfare | Synonyms: bioarm, biological weapon |
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birdbrain | (noun) a person with confused ideas; incapable of serious thought | Synonyms: addle-head, addlehead, loon |
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bisection | (noun) dividing into two equal parts | - |
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bison | (noun) any of several large humped bovids having shaggy manes and large heads and short horns | - |
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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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bitumen | (noun) any of various naturally occurring impure mixtures of hydrocarbons | - |
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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 |
blain | (noun) an inflammatory swelling or sore | - |
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blaxploitation | (noun) the exploitation of black people (especially with regard to stereotyped roles in movies) | - |
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blazon | (noun) the official symbols of a family, state, etc. | Synonyms: arms, blazonry, coat of arms |
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bloodstain | (noun) a discoloration caused by blood | - |
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blowgun | (noun) a tube through which darts can be shot by blowing | Synonyms: blow tube, blowpipe, blowtube |
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bludgeon | (noun) a club used as a weapon | - |
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bluefin | (noun) largest tuna; to 1500 pounds; of mostly temperate seas: feed in polar regions but breed in tropics | Synonyms: bluefin tuna, horse mackerel, Thunnus thynnus |
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(noun) flesh of very large tuna | Synonyms: bluefin tuna |
boatman | (noun) someone who drives or rides in a boat | Synonyms: boater, waterman |
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boatswain | (noun) a petty officer on a merchant ship who controls the work of other seamen | Synonyms: bo's'n, bo'sun, bos'n, bosun |
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bobbin | (noun) a winder around which thread or tape or film or other flexible materials can be wound | Synonyms: reel, spool |
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bodkin | (noun) a blunt needle for threading ribbon through loops | Synonyms: threader |
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(noun) a small sharp-pointed tool for punching holes in leather or fabric | - |
(noun) formerly a long hairpin; usually with an ornamental head | - |
(noun) a dagger with a slender blade | Synonyms: poniard |
boffin | (noun) (British slang) a scientist or technician engaged in military research | - |
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bogbean | (noun) perennial plant of Europe and America having racemes of white or purplish flowers and intensely bitter trifoliate leaves; often rooting at water margin and spreading across the surface | Synonyms: bog myrtle, buckbean, marsh trefoil, Menyanthes trifoliata, water shamrock |
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bogeyman | (noun) an imaginary monster used to frighten children | Synonyms: booger, boogeyman, bugaboo, bugbear |
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bohemian | (noun) a nonconformist writer or artist who lives an unconventional life | - |
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bombardon | (noun) a large shawm; the bass member of the shawm family | Synonyms: bombard |
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(noun) a tuba that coils over the shoulder of the musician | Synonyms: helicon |
bombilation | (noun) sound of rapid vibration | Synonyms: bombination, buzz |
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bombination | (noun) sound of rapid vibration | Synonyms: bombilation, buzz |
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bonbon | (noun) a candy that usually has a center of fondant or fruit or nuts coated in chocolate | - |
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bondman | (noun) a male slave | Synonyms: bondsman |
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(noun) a male bound to serve without wages | Synonyms: bondsman |
bondsman | (noun) a male slave | Synonyms: bondman |
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(noun) a male bound to serve without wages | Synonyms: bondman |
(noun) a male who signs a bond as surety for someone else | - |
bondsperson | (noun) someone who signs a bond as surety for someone else | - |
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bondswoman | (noun) a female slave | Synonyms: bondmaid, bondwoman |
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(noun) a female bound to serve without wages | Synonyms: bondmaid, bondwoman |
(noun) a female who signs a bond as surety for someone else | - |
bondwoman | (noun) a female slave | Synonyms: bondmaid, bondswoman |
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(noun) a female bound to serve without wages | Synonyms: bondmaid, bondswoman |
boogeyman | (noun) an imaginary monster used to frighten children | Synonyms: bogeyman, booger, bugaboo, bugbear |
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bookman | (noun) a learned person; someone who by long study has gained mastery in one or more disciplines | Synonyms: scholar, scholarly person |
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boon | (noun) a desirable state | Synonyms: blessing |
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boron | (noun) a trivalent metalloid element; occurs both in a hard black crystal and in the form of a yellow or brown powder | Synonyms: atomic number 5, B |
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boson | (noun) any particle that obeys Bose-Einstein statistics but not the Pauli exclusion principle; all nuclei with an even mass number are bosons | - |
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bosun | (noun) a petty officer on a merchant ship who controls the work of other seamen | Synonyms: bo's'n, bo'sun, boatswain, bos'n |
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botheration | (noun) something or someone that causes trouble; a source of unhappiness | Synonyms: annoyance, bother, infliction, nuisance, pain, pain in the ass, pain in the neck |
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(noun) the psychological state of being irritated or annoyed | Synonyms: annoyance, irritation, vexation |
botulin | (noun) potent bacterial toxin produced by the bacterium Clostridium botulinum that causes botulism; can be used as a bioweapon | Synonyms: botulinus toxin, botulismotoxin |
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botulismotoxin | (noun) potent bacterial toxin produced by the bacterium Clostridium botulinum that causes botulism; can be used as a bioweapon | Synonyms: botulin, botulinus toxin |
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bouillon | (noun) a clear seasoned broth | - |
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bourbon | (noun) whiskey distilled from a mash of corn and malt and rye and aged in charred oak barrels | - |
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bourdon | (noun) a pipe of the bagpipe that is tuned to produce a single continuous tone | Synonyms: drone, drone pipe |
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bourguignon | (noun) reduced red wine with onions and parsley and thyme and butter | Synonyms: bourguignon sauce, Burgundy sauce |
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bourn | (noun) an archaic term for a goal or destination | Synonyms: bourne |
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(noun) an archaic term for a boundary | Synonyms: bourne |
boustrophedon | (noun) an ancient writing system: having alternate lines written in opposite directions; literally `as the ox ploughs' | - |
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bowdlerisation | (noun) the act of deleting or modifying all passages considered to be indecent | Synonyms: bowdlerization |
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(noun) written material that has been bowdlerized | Synonyms: bowdlerization |
bowdlerization | (noun) the act of deleting or modifying all passages considered to be indecent | Synonyms: bowdlerisation |
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(noun) written material that has been bowdlerized | Synonyms: bowdlerisation |
bowfin | (noun) primitive long-bodied carnivorous freshwater fish with a very long dorsal fin; found in sluggish waters of North America | Synonyms: Amia calva, dogfish, grindle |
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bowman | (noun) a person who is expert in the use of a bow and arrow | Synonyms: archer |
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boxthorn | (noun) any of various shrubs or vines of the genus Lycium with showy flowers and bright berries | Synonyms: matrimony vine |
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brachiation | (noun) swinging by the arms from branch to branch | - |
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brachyuran | (noun) typical crabs | - |
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bracken | (noun) large coarse fern often several feet high; essentially weed ferns; cosmopolitan | Synonyms: brake, pasture brake, Pteridium aquilinum |
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(noun) fern of southeastern Asia; not hardy in cold temperate regions | Synonyms: Pteridium esculentum |
brahman | (noun) the highest of the four varnas: the priestly or sacerdotal category | Synonyms: brahmin |
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(noun) a member of the highest of the four Hindu varnas | Synonyms: brahmin |
(noun) a member of a social and cultural elite (especially a descendant of an old New England family) | Synonyms: brahmin |
brahmin | (noun) the highest of the four varnas: the priestly or sacerdotal category | Synonyms: brahman |
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(noun) a member of the highest of the four Hindu varnas | Synonyms: brahman |
(noun) a member of a social and cultural elite (especially a descendant of an old New England family) | Synonyms: brahman |
brain | (noun) that part of the central nervous system that includes all the higher nervous centers; enclosed within the skull; continuous with the spinal cord | Synonyms: encephalon |
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(noun) mental ability | Synonyms: brainpower, learning ability, mental capacity, mentality, wit |
(noun) that which is responsible for one's thoughts, feelings, and conscious brain functions; the seat of the faculty of reason | Synonyms: head, mind, nous, psyche |
(noun) the brain of certain animals used as meat | - |
(noun) someone who has exceptional intellectual ability and originality | Synonyms: brainiac, Einstein, genius, mastermind |
brainpan | (noun) the part of the skull that encloses the brain | Synonyms: braincase, cranium |
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brakeman | (noun) a railroad employee responsible for a train's brakes | - |
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bran | (noun) food prepared from the husks of cereal grains | - |
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(noun) broken husks of the seeds of cereal grains that are separated from the flour by sifting | - |
branchiopodan | (noun) aquatic crustaceans typically having a carapace and many pairs of leaflike appendages used for swimming as well as respiration and feeding | Synonyms: branchiopod, branchiopod crustacean |
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brawn | (noun) possessing muscular strength | Synonyms: brawniness, heftiness, muscle, muscularity, sinew |
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breakdown | (noun) the act of disrupting an established order so it fails to continue | Synonyms: dislocation |
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(noun) an analysis into mutually exclusive categories | Synonyms: partitioning |
(noun) a cessation of normal operation | Synonyms: equipment failure |
(noun) (biology) the process of decay caused by bacterial or fungal action | Synonyms: decomposition, putrefaction, rot, rotting |
(noun) (chemistry) separation of a substance into two or more substances that may differ from each other and from the original substance | Synonyms: chemical decomposition reaction, decomposition, decomposition reaction |
(noun) a mental or physical breakdown | Synonyms: crack-up |
breastpin | (noun) a decorative pin worn by women | Synonyms: broach, brooch |
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brethren | (noun) (plural) the lay members of a male religious order | - |
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brickkiln | (noun) a kiln for making bricks | - |
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bridoon | (noun) a bit resembling a snaffle bit; used with a separate curb | - |
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brogan | (noun) a thick and heavy shoe | Synonyms: brogue, clodhopper, work shoe |
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bromeosin | (noun) a red fluorescent dye resulting from the action of bromine on fluorescein; used in cosmetics and as a biological stain for studying cell structures | Synonyms: eosin |
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broomcorn | (noun) tall grasses grown for the elongated stiff-branched panicle used for brooms and brushes | Synonyms: Sorghum vulgare technicum |
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brown | (noun) an orange of low brightness and saturation | Synonyms: brownness |
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bruin | (noun) large ferocious bear of Eurasia | Synonyms: brown bear, Ursus arctos |
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(noun) a conventional name for a bear used in tales following usage in the old epic `Reynard the Fox' | - |
brutalisation | (noun) an act that makes people cruel or lacking normal human qualities | Synonyms: animalisation, animalization, brutalization |
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(noun) the activity of treating someone savagely or viciously | Synonyms: brutalization |
(noun) the condition of being treated in a cruel and savage manner | Synonyms: brutalization |
brutalization | (noun) an act that makes people cruel or lacking normal human qualities | Synonyms: animalisation, animalization, brutalisation |
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(noun) the activity of treating someone savagely or viciously | Synonyms: brutalisation |
(noun) the condition of being treated in a cruel and savage manner | Synonyms: brutalisation |
bryozoan | (noun) sessile aquatic animal forming mossy colonies of small polyps each having a curved or circular ridge bearing tentacles; attach to stones or seaweed and reproduce by budding | Synonyms: moss animal, polyzoan, sea mat, sea moss |
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buckbean | (noun) perennial plant of Europe and America having racemes of white or purplish flowers and intensely bitter trifoliate leaves; often rooting at water margin and spreading across the surface | Synonyms: bog myrtle, bogbean, marsh trefoil, Menyanthes trifoliata, water shamrock |
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buckskin | (noun) horse of a light yellowish dun color with dark mane and tail | - |
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(noun) a soft yellowish suede leather originally from deerskin but now usually from sheepskin | - |
buckthorn | (noun) any shrub or small tree of the genus Bumelia | - |
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(noun) a shrub or shrubby tree of the genus Rhamnus; fruits are source of yellow dyes or pigments | - |
(noun) an Old World plantain with long narrow ribbed leaves widely established in temperate regions | Synonyms: English plantain, narrow-leaved plantain, Plantago lanceolata, ribgrass, ribwort, ripple-grass |
buffoon | (noun) a person who amuses others by ridiculous behavior | Synonyms: clown, goof, goofball, merry andrew |
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(noun) a rude or vulgar fool | Synonyms: clown |
bulletin | (noun) a brief report (especially an official statement issued for immediate publication or broadcast) | - |
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bullhorn | (noun) a portable loudspeaker with built-in microphone and amplifier | Synonyms: loud-hailer, loud hailer |
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bullion | (noun) gold or silver in bars or ingots | - |
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(noun) a mass of precious metal | - |
bullpen | (noun) a large cell where prisoners (people awaiting trial or sentence or refugees or illegal immigrants) are confined together temporarily | Synonyms: detention cell, detention centre |
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(noun) a place on a baseball field where relief pitchers can warm up during a game | - |
bumpkin | (noun) a person who is not very intelligent or interested in culture | Synonyms: chawbacon, hayseed, hick, rube, yahoo, yokel |
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bun | (noun) small rounded bread either plain or sweet | Synonyms: roll |
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bunion | (noun) a painful swelling of the bursa of the first joint of the big toe | - |
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bunsen | (noun) a gas burner used in laboratories; has an air valve to regulate the mixture of gas and air | Synonyms: bunsen burner, etna |
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burden | (noun) weight to be borne or conveyed | Synonyms: load, loading |
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(noun) the central idea that is expanded in a document or discourse | - |
(noun) an onerous or difficult concern | Synonyms: encumbrance, incumbrance, load, onus |
(noun) the central meaning or theme of a speech or literary work | Synonyms: core, effect, essence, gist |
burin | (noun) a chisel of tempered steel with a sharp point; used for engraving | - |
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burn | (noun) damage inflicted by fire | - |
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(noun) a place or area that has been burned (especially on a person's body) | Synonyms: burn mark |
(noun) pain that feels hot as if it were on fire | Synonyms: burning |
(noun) an injury caused by exposure to heat or chemicals or radiation | - |
burthen | (noun) a variant of `burden' | - |
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