| auxin | (noun) a plant hormone that promotes root formation and bud growth | - |
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| auxinic | (adjective) relating to or containing auxins | - |
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| aventurine | (noun) a translucent quartz spangled with bits of mica or other minerals | Synonyms: sunstone |
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| averting | (noun) the act of preventing something from occurring | - |
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| (noun) the act of turning yourself (or your gaze) away | Synonyms: aversion |
| avitaminosis | (noun) any of several diseases caused by deficiency of one or more vitamins | Synonyms: hypovitaminosis |
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| avitaminotic | (adjective) of or relating to or characteristic of avitaminosis | - |
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| awakening | (noun) the act of waking | Synonyms: wakening, waking up |
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| awarding | (noun) a grant made by a law court | Synonyms: award |
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| awing | (adjective) inspiring awe or admiration or wonder | Synonyms: amazing, awe-inspiring, awesome, awful |
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| awning | (noun) a canopy made of canvas to shelter people or things from rain or sun | Synonyms: sunblind, sunshade |
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| awninged | (adjective) covered with an awning | - |
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| ayin | (noun) the 16th letter of the Hebrew alphabet | - |
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| azadirachtin | (noun) insecticide | - |
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| azathioprine | (noun) an immunosuppressive drug (trade name Imuran) used to prevent rejection of a transplanted organ | Synonyms: Imuran |
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| azithromycin | (noun) a systemic antibacterial medicine (trade name Zithromax) that is prescribed to treat bacterial infections in many different parts of the body | Synonyms: Zithromax |
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| babbitting | (noun) lining a surface or bearing with Babbitt metal | - |
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| babbling | (noun) gibberish resembling the sounds of a baby | Synonyms: babble, lallation |
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| babyminder | (noun) a person who looks after babies (usually in the person's own home) while the babys' parents are working | Synonyms: baby minder, minder |
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| babysitting | (noun) the work of a baby sitter; caring for children when their parents are not home | Synonyms: baby sitting |
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| bacitracin | (noun) a polypeptide antibiotic of known chemical structure effective against several types of Gram-positive organisms; usually applied locally | - |
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| backbreaking | (adjective) characterized by effort to the point of exhaustion; especially physical effort | Synonyms: arduous, grueling, gruelling, hard, heavy, laborious, operose, punishing, toilsome |
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| backflowing | (noun) a flow that returns toward its source | Synonyms: backflow |
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| backgrounding | (noun) the execution of low priority programs while higher priority programs are not using the processing system | Synonyms: background processing |
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| backing | (noun) the act of providing approval and support | Synonyms: backup, championship, patronage |
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| (noun) something forming a back that is added for strengthening | Synonyms: mount |
| (noun) financial resources provided to make some project possible | Synonyms: financial backing, financial support, funding, support |
| backlighting | (noun) lighting from behind | - |
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| backpacking | (noun) carrying something in a pack on the back | Synonyms: packing |
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| backsliding | (noun) a failure to maintain a higher state | Synonyms: lapse, lapsing, relapse, relapsing, reversion, reverting |
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| backspin | (noun) spin (usually of a moving ball) that retards or reverses the forward motion | - |
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| badgering | (noun) the act of harassing someone | Synonyms: bedevilment, torment, worrying |
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| badinage | (noun) frivolous banter | - |
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| badminton | (noun) a game played on a court with light long-handled rackets used to volley a shuttlecock over a net | - |
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| baffling | (adjective) making great mental demands; hard to comprehend or solve or believe | Synonyms: elusive, knotty, problematic, problematical, tough |
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| bagging | (noun) coarse fabric used for bags or sacks | Synonyms: sacking |
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| baiting | (noun) harassment especially of a tethered animal | - |
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| baking | (adjective) as hot as if in an oven | Synonyms: baking hot |
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| (noun) cooking by dry heat in an oven | - |
| (noun) making bread or cake or pastry etc. | - |
| balancing | (noun) getting two things to correspond | Synonyms: reconciliation |
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| baldachin | (noun) ornamented canopy supported by columns or suspended from a roof or projected from a wall (as over an altar) | - |
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| balding | (adjective) getting bald | - |
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| balkiness | (noun) likely to stop abruptly and unexpectedly | - |
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| balking | (adjective) refusing to proceed, act or work | Synonyms: balky |
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| balkline | (noun) line across a billiard table behind which the cue balls are placed at the start of a game | Synonyms: baulk-line, string line |
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| ballerina | (noun) a female ballet dancer | Synonyms: danseuse |
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| ballooning | (noun) flying in a balloon | - |
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| balloting | (noun) a choice that is made by counting the number of people in favor of each alternative | Synonyms: ballot, vote, voting |
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| ballpoint | (noun) a pen that has a small metal ball as the point of transfer of ink to paper | Synonyms: ballpen, ballpoint pen, Biro |
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| balminess | (noun) the quality of weather that is deliciously mild and soothing | Synonyms: softness |
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| bambino | (noun) a young child who is just beginning to walk | Synonyms: toddler, tot, yearling |
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| bandaging | (noun) the act of applying a bandage | Synonyms: binding, dressing |
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| banding | (noun) an adornment consisting of a strip of a contrasting color or material | Synonyms: band, stripe |
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| (noun) a stripe or stripes of contrasting color | Synonyms: band, stria, striation |
| banging | (adjective) (used informally) very large | Synonyms: humongous, thumping, walloping, whopping |
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| (noun) the act of subjecting to strong attack | Synonyms: battering |
| (noun) a continuing very loud noise | - |
| banking | (noun) transacting business with a bank; depositing or withdrawing funds or requesting a loan etc. | - |
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| (noun) engaging in the business of keeping money for savings and checking accounts or for exchange or for issuing loans and credit etc. | - |
| banning | (noun) an official prohibition or edict against something | Synonyms: ban, forbiddance, forbidding |
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| banqueting | (noun) eating an elaborate meal (often accompanied by entertainment) | Synonyms: feasting |
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| bantering | (adjective) cleverly amusing in tone | Synonyms: facetious, tongue-in-cheek |
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| banteringly | (adverb) in a bantering fashion | Synonyms: tongue-in-cheek |
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| banting | (noun) wild ox of the Malay Archipelago | Synonyms: banteng, Bos banteng, tsine |
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| barbecuing | (noun) roasting a large piece of meat on a revolving spit out of doors over an open fire | - |
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| bareboating | (noun) boating by chartering a bareboat and providing your own crew and provisions | - |
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| bargain | (noun) an agreement between parties (usually arrived at after discussion) fixing obligations of each | Synonyms: deal |
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| (noun) an advantageous purchase | Synonyms: buy, steal |
| (verb) come to terms; arrive at an agreement | - |
| (verb) negotiate the terms of an exchange | Synonyms: dicker |
| bargainer | (noun) someone who purchases and maintains an inventory of goods to be sold | Synonyms: dealer, monger, trader |
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| (noun) negotiator of the terms of a transaction | - |
| bargaining | (noun) the negotiation of the terms of a transaction or agreement | - |
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| baring | (noun) the removal of covering | Synonyms: denudation, husking, stripping, uncovering |
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| barracking | (noun) shouting to interrupt a speech with which you disagree | Synonyms: heckling |
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| barring | (noun) the act of excluding someone by a negative vote or veto | Synonyms: blackball |
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| baseline | (noun) the lines a baseball player must follow while running the bases | - |
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| (noun) the back line bounding each end of a tennis or handball court; when serving the server must not step over this line | Synonyms: service line |
| (noun) an imaginary line or standard by which things are measured or compared | - |
| basin | (noun) a bowl-shaped vessel; usually used for holding food or liquids | - |
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| (noun) a bathroom sink that is permanently installed and connected to a water supply and drainpipe; where you can wash your hands and face | Synonyms: lavatory, washbasin, washbowl, washstand |
| (noun) the entire geographical area drained by a river and its tributaries; an area characterized by all runoff being conveyed to the same outlet | Synonyms: catchment area, catchment basin, drainage area, drainage basin, river basin, watershed |
| (noun) a natural depression in the surface of the land often with a lake at the bottom of it | - |
| (noun) the quantity that a basin will hold | Synonyms: basinful |
| basinal | (adjective) of or relating to a basin | - |
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| basined | (adjective) enclosed in a basin | - |
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| basinet | (noun) a medieval steel helmet | - |
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| basinful | (noun) the quantity that a basin will hold | Synonyms: basin |
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| bassine | (noun) coarse leaf fiber from palmyra palms used in making brushes and brooms | - |
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| bassinet | (noun) a basket (usually hooded) used as a baby's bed | - |
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| (noun) a perambulator that resembles a bassinet | - |
| bastinado | (noun) a form of torture in which the soles of the feet are beaten with whips or cudgels | Synonyms: falanga |
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| (noun) a cudgel used to give someone a beating on the soles of the feet | - |
| (verb) beat somebody on the soles of the feet | - |
| basting | (noun) moistening a roast as it is cooking | - |
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| (noun) a loose temporary sewing stitch to hold layers of fabric together | Synonyms: baste, basting stitch, tacking |
| bathing | (noun) immersing the body in water or sunshine | - |
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| (noun) the act of washing yourself (or another person) | Synonyms: washup |
| battering | (noun) the act of subjecting to strong attack | Synonyms: banging |
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| batting | (noun) (baseball) the batter's attempt to get on base | - |
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| (noun) stuffing made of rolls or sheets of cotton wool or synthetic fiber | Synonyms: batten |
| batwing | (adjective) formed or shaped like a bat's wing | - |
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| (noun) one of a pair of swinging doors (as at the entrance to a western saloon) | - |
| bawdiness | (noun) the trait of behaving in an obscene manner | Synonyms: lewdness, obscenity, salaciousness, salacity |
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| bawling | (noun) loud cries made while weeping | Synonyms: wailing |
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| beading | (noun) a beaded molding for edging or decorating furniture | Synonyms: astragal, bead, beadwork |
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| (noun) ornamentation with beads | Synonyms: beadwork |
| beagling | (noun) hunting rabbits with beagles | - |
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| beaming | (adjective) radiating or as if radiating light | Synonyms: beamy, effulgent, radiant, refulgent |
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| (adjective) cheerful and bright | Synonyms: glad |
| (adjective) pleased and proud | - |
| bearing | (adjective) (of a structural member) withstanding a weight or strain | - |
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| (noun) a rotating support placed between moving parts to allow them to move easily | - |
| (noun) heraldry consisting of a design or image depicted on a shield | Synonyms: armorial bearing, charge, heraldic bearing |
| (noun) dignified manner or conduct | Synonyms: comportment, mien, presence |
| (noun) characteristic way of bearing one's body | Synonyms: carriage, posture |
| (noun) the direction or path along which something moves or along which it lies | Synonyms: aim, heading |
| (noun) relevant relation or interconnection | - |
| bearskin | (noun) tall hat; worn by some British soldiers on ceremonial occasions | Synonyms: busby, shako |
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| (noun) the pelt of a bear | - |
| beastliness | (noun) unpleasant nastiness; used especially of nasty weather | - |
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| (noun) the quality of being deliberately mean | Synonyms: meanness |
| beating | (noun) the act of inflicting corporal punishment with repeated blows | Synonyms: drubbing, lacing, licking, thrashing, trouncing, whacking |
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| (noun) the act of overcoming or outdoing | Synonyms: whipping |
| becoming | (adjective) displaying or setting off to best advantage | - |
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| (adjective) according with custom or propriety | Synonyms: comely, comme il faut, decorous, seemly |
| becomingly | (adverb) in a becoming manner | - |
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| becomingness | (noun) the quality of being becoming | - |
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| bedding | (noun) coverings that are used on a bed | Synonyms: bed clothing, bedclothes |
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| (noun) material used to provide a bed for animals | Synonyms: bedding material, litter |
| bedspring | (noun) (usually in the plural) one of the springs holding up the mattress of a bed | - |
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| beekeeping | (noun) the cultivation of bees on a commercial scale for the production of honey | Synonyms: apiculture |
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| beeline | (noun) the most direct route | - |
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| beetling | (adjective) jutting or overhanging | Synonyms: beetle |
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| befitting | (adjective) appropriate to | - |
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| befittingly | (adverb) in accordance with what is appropriate or suitable for the circumstances | Synonyms: appropriately, duly, fitly, fittingly, properly, suitably |
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| befooling | (noun) derision of someone or something as foolish or absurd or inconsistent | Synonyms: stultification |
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| begging | (noun) a solicitation for money or food (especially in the street by an apparently penniless person) | Synonyms: beggary, mendicancy |
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| begin | (verb) take the first step or steps in carrying out an action | Synonyms: commence, get, get down, set about, set out, start, start out |
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| (verb) set in motion, cause to start | Synonyms: commence, lead off, start |
| (verb) begin to speak or say | - |
| (verb) begin to speak, understand, read, and write a language | - |
| (verb) achieve or accomplish in the least degree, usually used in the negative | - |
| (verb) begin an event that is implied and limited by the nature or inherent function of the direct object | Synonyms: start |
| (verb) have a beginning, in a temporal, spatial, or evaluative sense | Synonyms: start |
| (verb) be the first item or point, constitute the beginning or start, come first in a series | - |
| (verb) have a beginning characterized in some specified way | Synonyms: start |
| (verb) have a beginning, of a temporal event | - |