ExpertGlossary terms starting with B

2,026 terms

  1. Bitumen Gooey, black, high-sulfur, heavy oil extracted from tar sand and then upgraded to synthetic fuel oil. See tar sand.
  2. Bituminous Containing asphalt or tar.
  3. Bituminous coal A dense, black, soft coal, often with well-defined bands of bright and dull material.
  4. bitwise operator An operator that manipulates the bits of one or more of its operands individually and in parallel.
  5. BIU Abbreviation for bus interface unit. See network interface device.
  6. bivalent Two paired homologous chromosomes (one of maternal origin; the other of paternal origin) at prophase to anaphase of the first meiotic division.
  7. biweekly mortgage A loan requiring payments of principal and interest at two-week intervals. This type of loan amortizes much faster than monthly payment loans.
  8. Biweekly Payment Mortgage A mortgage with payments due every two weeks (instead of monthly).
  9. bizelesin An anticancer drug that belongs to the family of drugs called alkylating agents. It is also an antitumor antibiotic.
  10. BKN Broken
  11. BL Abbreviation for Boundary Layer; a layer of air adjacent to a bounding surface.
  12. BL22 immunotoxin (... IH-myoo-noh-TOK-sin) A bacterial toxic substance linked to an antibody that attaches to cancer cells and kills them.
  13. BLACK [A] designation applied to telecommunications and automated information systems, and to associated areas, circuits, components, and equipment, in which…
  14. Black Action A bet made with a black ($100) chip.
  15. black bass Common term used to describe several types of bass of the sunfish family, including the largemouth and smallmouth bass.
  16. Black Bet A wager that the color of the next number will be black.
  17. Black Body A hypothetical object that absorbs all of the radiation that strikes it; also emits radiation at a maximum rate for its given temperature.
  18. Black Body Spectrum A plot of the intensity of radiation versus wavelength for a black body.
  19. black box A generic term for a single-purpose device having limited functionality. Note: A black box is usually represented in schematic drawings as a geometric…
  20. black burst A composite color video signal comprised of sync, color burst, and black video.
  21. Black Carbon Operationally defined species based on measurement of light absorption and chemical reactivity and/or thermal stability; consists of soot, charcoal…
  22. black carbon concentration The concentration of carbon in its very absorbing, elemental, non-organic, non-oxide form (e.g. graphite).
  23. Black chip A casino chip worth $100.
  24. black cohosh An eastern North American perennial herb. A substance obtained from the root of the plant has been used in some cultures to treat a number of medical…
  25. black facsimile transmission In facsimile systems using amplitude modulation, that form of transmission in which the maximum transmitted power corresponds to the maximum density of…
  26. Black Hat SEO Search engines set up guidelines that help them extract billions of dollars of ad revenue from the work of publishers and the attention of searchers.
  27. Black Ice Transparent ice formed in rivers and lakes, or on roads and bridges.
  28. black level Of a television baseband signal (e.g., NTSC composite video), the voltage level corresponding to black or to the maximum limit of black peaks.
  29. Black List Block email from email addresses and domains added to this list.
  30. black noise Noise that has a frequency spectrum of predominately zero power level over all frequencies except for a few narrow bands or spikes.
  31. black recording 1. In facsimile systems using amplitude modulation, recording in which the maximum received power corresponds to the maximum density of the record medium.
  32. BLACK signal A signal that represents only unclassified or encrypted information, usually in cryptographic systems.
  33. black snakeroot An eastern North American perennial herb. A substance obtained from the root of the plant has been used in some cultures to treat a number of medical…
  34. Black text See cipher-text.
  35. Black water Liquid and solid human body waste and the carriage water generated through toilet usage.
  36. Blackbody An ideal substance that absorbs all radiation falling on it, and reflecting nothing.
  37. Blackbody Radiation The electromagnetic radiation emitted by an ideal blackbody adhering to the radiation laws; it is the theoretical maximum amount of electromagnetic…
  38. Blackjack Refers to the game of 21, but also refers to a natural total of 21 on the first two cards. A blackjack always consists of an ace and a face card or a ten.
  39. Blacklist A Blacklist collects known sources of spam. Email traffic then can be filtered against a blacklist to remove spam.
  40. Blackout The disconnection of the source of electricity from all the electrical loads in a certain geographical area brought about by an emergency forced outage or…
  41. blackout period the period between the date the examining attorney approves the mark for publication and the date of issuance of the Notice of Allowance.
  42. Blacks Chips valued at $100.
  43. bladder (BLA-der) The organ that stores urine.
  44. bladder cancer (BLA-der KAN-ser) Cancer that forms in tissues of the bladder (the organ that stores urine).
  45. blade Usually a part of an excavator which digs and pushes dirt but does not carry it.
  46. blade server a rack-mounted chassis which accepts multiple modularized server blades and provides shared network and power resources, resulting in high server density…
  47. BLADES BMD Long Wavelength Infrared Advanced Exo -atmospheric Sensor.
  48. BLADT Blast, Dust, Thermal Effects Model.
  49. Blank A board card that doesn't seem to affect the standings in the hand. If the flop is A♠-J♦-T ♠, then a turn card of 2♥ would be considered a blank.
  50. blank final variable A final variable that is not initialized as part of its declaration. Such a variable must be initialized in either an instance initialization block or all…
  51. Blank Node A resource, or node in an RDF graph, which is not identified by a URI; can be used as subject or object in an RDF triple (RDF statement).
  52. Blanket mortgage A single mortgage covering more than one parcel of real estate, such as a mortgage covering all the lots of a builder in a subdivision.
  53. blanketing The interference that is caused by the presence of an AM broadcast signal of one volt per meter (V/m) or greater strengths in the area adjacent to the…
  54. blanketing area In the vicinity of a transmitting antenna, the area in which the signal from that antenna interferes with the reception of other signals.
  55. blanking The period of time in which no video image is displayed. [JP 1-02] 2. In graphic display, the suppression of the display of one or more display elements…
  56. blanking interval In raster-scanned television technology, the period between (a) the end of one horizontal scanning line and the beginning of the next (the horizontal…
  57. blanking level In a baseband television signal, the DC level (nominally 0 volts) from which the amplitudes of the various components of the signal are measured.
  58. BLAST An immature blood cell.
  59. blast cell A large, rapidly dividing cell that develops from a B cell in response to an antigenic stimulus.
  60. blast crisis (blast KRY-sis) A phase of chronic myelogenous leukemia in which tiredness, fever, and an enlarged spleen occur during the blastic phase, when more than…
  61. Blast Effect Destruction of or damage to structures and personnel by the force of an explosion on or above the surface of the ground.
  62. Blast Wave A sharply defined wave of increased pressure rapidly propagated through a surrounding medium from a center of detonation or similar disturbance.
  63. blastic phase chronic myelogenous leukemia (BLAS-tik FAYZ KRAH-nik MY-eh-LAH-jeh-nus loo-KEE-mee-uh) A phase of chronic myelogenous leukemia in which 20% or more of the cells in the blood or bone…
  64. Blasting mats A blanket usually composed of woven cable or interlocked rings placed over a blast to reduce flyrock.
  65. Blastocoel The fluid-filled cavity inside the blastocyst of the developing embryo.
  66. Blastocyst A mammalian embryo (fertilized ovum) in the early stages of development, approximately up to the time of implantation.
  67. Blastocyst stage An early stage in the development of embryos, when (in mammals) the embryo is a spherical body comprising an inner cell mass that will become the fetus…
  68. blastomere Any one of the cells formed from the first few cleavages in animal embryology. The embryo usually divides into two, then four, then eight blastomeres, and…
  69. Blastula In animals, an early embryo form that follows the morula stage; typically, a single-layered sheet (blastoderm) or ball of cells (blastocyst ).
  70. BLCCE BMDO Life Cycle Cost Estimate.
  71. BLD Build
  72. BLDUP Buildup
  73. Bleeder valve A valve in the wheel used to reduce air pressure in tires.
  74. bleeding 1. Collection of blood from immunized animals. 2. Used to describe the occasional purplish-black colouration of media due to phenolic products given off…
  75. Blend line Line painted on the track near the apron and extending from the pit road exit into the first turn.
  76. Blended Attack Malicious code that uses multiple methods to spread.
  77. Blender Pump A fuel dispenser that draws fuel from two separate storage tanks and can dispense preprogrammed blends of those two fuels.
  78. bleomycin An anticancer drug that belongs to the family of drugs called antitumor antibiotics.
  79. bless In corporate life, to grant official approval to a thing, as in, "The VP of Engineering has blessed our WebCruncher project.
  80. blessed thistle (... THIH-sel) A plant whose leaves, stems, and flowers have been used in some cultures to treat certain medical problems.
  81. Blight Physical and economic conditions within an area that cause a reduction of or lack of proper utilization of that area.
  82. Blind A forced bet (or partial bet) put in by one or more players before any cards are dealt.
  83. blind cast Casting at no particular target.
  84. Blind or Double-Blind Sample Technique a type of proficiency testing where the member is not aware that the sample/case under analysis is a quality assessment sample.
  85. Blind pool If the general partner of a limited partnership does not say which investments the partnership will make, the investment is known as a blind pool.
  86. blind transmission Transmission without obtaining a receipt, i.e., acknowledgement of reception, from the intended receiving station.
  87. Blind trust A blind trust is created when a third party, such as an investment adviser or other trustee, assumes complete control of the assets held in a trust.
  88. blinded study A type of study in which the patients (single-blinded) or the patients and their doctors (double-blinded) do not know which drug or treatment is being…
  89. blinking In graphic display devices, an intentional periodic change in the intensity of one or more display elements or display segments.
  90. blip code An optical mark, usually rectangular, that has been recorded below a microfilm image and is used for counting or indexing images or frames automatically…
  91. Blister An overheating of the tread compound resulting in bubbles on the tire surface.
  92. Blizzard (abbrev. BLZD)- A blizzard means that the following conditions are expected to prevail for a period of 3 hours or longer: Sustained wind or frequent gusts…
  93. Blizzard Warning Issued for winter storms with sustained or frequent winds of 35 mph or higher with considerable falling and/or blowing snow that frequently reduces…
  94. BLK Block (system production lot)
  95. Blk IVA Navy Standard Missile Block IV-A.
  96. BLM The Bureau of Land Management.
  97. BLM land Land administered by the Bureau of Land Management.
  98. BLO Below
  99. bloating (BLOH-ting) A swelling or feeling of fullness in the abdomen. Bloating is usually the result of gas in the intestines and can be caused by many things…
  100. BLOB A discrete packet of binary data that has an exceptionally large size, such as pictures or audio tracks stored as digital data, or any variable or table…