B - Definitions from Dictionary.com

35 results for: B

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This

B, b

–noun, plural B's or Bs, b's or bs.

1.	the second letter of the English alphabet, a consonant.

2.	any spoken sound represented by the letter B or b, as in bid, bauble, or daubed.

3.	something having the shape of a B.

4.	a written or printed representation of the letter B or b.

5.	a device, as a printer's type, for reproducing the letter B or b.

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
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Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
B

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1.	Chess. bishop.

black.

3.	Photography. bulb (def. 8).

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.

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Symbol.

1.	the second in order or in a series.

2.	(sometimes lowercase) (in some grading systems) a grade or mark, as in school or college, indicating the quality of a student's work as good or better than average.

3.	(sometimes lowercase) (in some school systems) a symbol designating the second semester of a school year.

4.	Physiology. a major blood group usually enabling a person whose blood is of this type to donate blood to persons of type B or AB and to receive blood from persons of type O or B. Compare ABO system.

Music.

a.	the seventh tone in the scale of C major or the second tone in the relative minor scale, A minor.

b.	a string, key, or pipe tuned to this tone.

c.	a written or printed note representing this tone.

d.	(in the fixed system of solmization) the seventh tone of the scale of C major, called ti.

e.	the tonality having B as the tonic note.

6.	(sometimes lowercase) the medieval Roman numeral for 300.

7.	Chemistry. boron.

8.	a proportional shoe width size, narrower than C and wider than A.

9.	a proportional brassiere cup size, smaller than C and larger than A.

10.	Physics. magnetic induction.

11.	Electricity. susceptance.

12.	a designation for a motion picture made on a low budget and meant as the secondary part of a double feature.

13.	a quality rating for a corporate or municipal bond, lower than BB and higher than CCC.

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
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Physics.

a.	bar; bars.

b.	barn; barns.

black.

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.

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bachelor.

bacillus.

3.	Baseball. base; baseman.

bass.

basso.

bay.

Bible.

bolivar.

9.	boliviano.

10.

book.

11.

born.

12.

breadth.

13.

British.

14.

brother.

15.	brotherhood.

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.

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bachelor.

bale.

3.	Baseball. base; baseman.

bass.

basso.

bay.

billion.

8.	blend of; blended.

book.

10.

born.

11.

breadth.

12.

brother.

13.	brotherhood.

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.

American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

b¹ Audio Help (bē) Pronunciation Key
n. pl. b's or B's also bs or Bs

The second letter of the modern English alphabet.
Any of the speech sounds represented by the letter b.
The second in a series.
Something shaped like the letter B.
B The second best or second highest in quality or rank: a mark of B on an English theme.
Music
1. The seventh tone in the scale of C major or the second tone in the relative minor scale.
2. A key or scale in which B is the tonic.
3. A written or printed note representing this tone.
4. A string, key, or pipe tuned to the pitch of this tone.
B One of the four major blood groups in the ABO system. Individuals with this blood group have the B antigen on the surface of their red blood cells, and the anti-A antibody in their blood serum.

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The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
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b²
abbr.

Physics barn
or B bel
bottom quark
breadth

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B¹

The symbol for the element boron.
The symbol for magnetic flux density.

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B²
abbr.

baryon number
Baseball base
Music bass
billion
bishop (chess)

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barn Audio Help (bärn) Pronunciation Key
n.

A large farm building used for storing farm products and sheltering livestock.
A large shed for the housing of vehicles, such as railroad cars.
A particularly large, typically bare building: lived in a barn of a country house.
Abbr. b Physics A unit of area equal to 10^-24 square centimeters, used to measure cross sections in nuclear physics.

[Middle English bern, from Old English berærn : bere, barley; see bhares- in Indo-European roots + ærn, house.]

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baryon number
n. Abbr. B
A quantum number equal to the difference between the number of baryons and the number of antibaryons in a system of subatomic particles. It remains the same throughout any reaction.

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bass² Audio Help (bās) Pronunciation Key
n.

A low-pitched sound or tone.
The tones in the lowest register of an instrument.
1. A male singing voice of the lowest range.
2. A singer who has such a voice.
3. An instrument that sounds within this range.
4. Abbr. B A vocal or instrumental part written within this range.
An instrument, especially a double bass, that produces tones in a low register.

adj.

Having a deep tone.
Low in pitch.

[Middle English bas, lowest musical part, from bas, low; see base².]

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Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

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bel Audio Help (běl) Pronunciation Key
n. Abbr. b or B
Ten decibels.

[After Alexander Graham Bell.]

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Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

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bish·op Audio Help (bĭsh'əp) Pronunciation Key
n.

A high-ranking Christian cleric, in modern churches usually in charge of a diocese and in some churches regarded as having received the highest ordination in unbroken succession from the apostles.
Abbr. B Games A usually miter-shaped chess piece that can move diagonally across any number of unoccupied spaces.
Mulled port spiced with oranges, sugar, and cloves.

[Middle English, from Old English bisceope, from Vulgar Latin *ebiscopus, from Late Latin episcopus, from Late Greek episkopos, from Greek, overseer : epi-, epi- + skopos, watcher; see spek- in Indo-European roots.]

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bo·ron Audio Help (bôr'ŏn', bōr'-) Pronunciation Key
n. Symbol B
A soft, brown, amorphous or crystalline nonmetallic element, extracted chiefly from kernite and borax and used in flares, propellant mixtures, nuclear reactor control elements, abrasives, and hard metallic alloys. Atomic number 5; atomic weight 10.811; melting point 2,300°C; sublimation point 2,550°C; specific gravity (crystal) 2.34; valence 3. See Table at element.

[bor(ax)¹ + (carb)on.]

bo·ron'ic (bə-rŏn'ĭk, bô-) adj.

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bottom quark
n. Abbr. b
A quark with a charge of - ¹/₃ and a mass about 10,000 times that of the electron. Also called beauty quark. See Table at subatomic particle.

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magnetic flux density
n. Symbol B
The amount of magnetic flux through a unit area taken perpendicular to the direction of the magnetic flux. Also called magnetic induction.

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WordNet - Cite This Source - Share This

b
noun
1.	aerobic rod-shaped spore-producing bacterium; often occurring in chainlike formations; found primarily in soil [syn: bacillus]
2.	originally thought to be a single vitamin but now separated into several B vitamins [syn: B-complex vitamin]
3.	a trivalent metalloid element; occurs both in a hard black crystal and in the form of a yellow or brown powder [syn: boron]
4.	a logarithmic unit of sound intensity equal to 10 decibels [syn: Bel]
5.	(physics) a unit of nuclear cross section; the effective circular area that one particle presents to another as a target for an encounter [syn: barn]
6.	the 2nd letter of the Roman alphabet
7.	the blood group whose red cells carry the B antigen

The American Heritage Science Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

The symbol for boron.
The symbol for magnetic field.

The American Heritage Science Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

boron Audio Help (bôr'ŏn') Pronunciation Key
Symbol B
A shiny, brittle, black metalloid element extracted chiefly from borax. It is a good electrical conductor at high temperatures and a poor conductor at low temperatures. Boron is necessary for the growth of land plants and is used in the preparation of soaps, abrasives, and hard alloys. It is also used in the control rods of nuclear reactors as a neutron absorber. Atomic number 5; atomic weight 10.811; melting point 2,300°C; sublimation point 2,550°C; specific gravity (crystal) 2.34; valence 3. See Periodic Table.

American Heritage Stedman's Medical Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

b or B
abbr.
blood (used as a subscript)

American Heritage Stedman's Medical Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

B
The symbol for the element boron.

Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
Main Entry: b
Function: abbreviation
1 bacillus
2 barometric
3 bath
4 Baumé scale
5 behavior
6 bel
7 bicuspid
8 born
9 brother

Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
Main Entry: B
Function: symbol
boron

Investopedia - Cite This Source - Share This

B

A Nasdaq stock symbol specifying that the stock is Class B shares of the company.

Investopedia Commentary

Nasdaq-listed securities have four or five characters. If a fifth letter appears, it identifies the issue as other than a single issue of common stock or capital stock.

See also: Nasdaq, Stock Symbol

Wallstreet Words - Cite This Source - Share This
b

Used in the dividend column of stock transaction tables in newspapers to indicate payment of a stock dividend in addition to the indicated cash dividend: 1.50b.

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B

A low, speculative grade assigned to a debt obligation by a rating agency. Such a rating indicates there is considerable uncertainty as to the ability to pay interest and repayprincipal over a long period.

Free On-line Dictionary of Computing - Cite This Source - Share This

B
1. byte.
2. A systems language written by Ken Thompson in 1970 mostly for his own use under Unix on the PDP-11. B was later improved by Kerninghan(?) and Ritchie to produce C. B was used as the systems language on Honeywell's GCOS-3.
B was, according to Ken, greatly influenced by BCPL, but the name B had nothing to do with BCPL. B was in fact a revision of an earlier language, bon, named after Ken Thompson's wife, Bonnie.
["The Programming Language B", S.C. Johnson & B.W. Kernighan, CS TR 8, Bell Labs (Jan 1973)].
[Features? Differences from C?]
(1997-02-02)
3. A simple interactive programming language by Lambert Meertens and Steven Pemberton. B was the predecessor of ABC.
(ftp://ftp.uni-kl.de/pub/languages/B.tar.Z).
["Draft Proposal for the B Language", Lambert Meertens, CWI, Amsterdam, 1981].
4. A specification language by Jean-Raymond Abrial of B Core UK, Magdalen Centre, Oxford Science Park, Oxford OX4 4GA. B is related to Z and supports development of C code from specifications. B has been used in major safety-critical system specifications in Europe, and is currently attracting increasing interest in industry. It has robust, commercially available tool support for specification, design, proof and code generation.
E-mail: .
(1995-04-24)

Free On-line Dictionary of Computing - Cite This Source - Share This

b
bit or maybe byte (B).
(1996-11-03)

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

B\ (b[=e]) is the second letter of the English alphabet. (See Guide to Pronunciation, [sect][sect] 196, 220.) It is etymologically related to p, v, f, w and m, letters representing sounds having a close organic affinity to its own sound; as in Eng. bursar and purser; Eng. bear and Lat. ferre; Eng. silver and Ger. silber; Lat. cubitum and It. gomito; Eng. seven, Anglo-Saxon seofon, Ger. sieben, Lat. septem, Gr."epta`, Sanskrit saptan. The form of letter B is Roman, from Greek B (Beta), of Semitic origin. The small b was formed by gradual change from the capital B.

Note: In Music, B is the nominal of the seventh tone in the model major scale (the scale of C major ), or of the second tone in it's relative minor scale (that of A minor ) . B[flat] stands for B flat, the tone a half step, or semitone, lower than B. In German, B stands for our B[flat], while our B natural is called H (pronounced h["a]).

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