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b

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B, b

[bee]
–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.
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B

1. Chess. bishop.
2. black.
3. Photography. bulb (def. 8).

B

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.
5. 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.

b

1. Physics.
a. bar; bars.
b. barn; barns.
2. black.

B.

1. bachelor.
2. bacillus.
3. Baseball. base; baseman.
4. bass.
5. basso.
6. bay.
7. Bible.
8. bolivar.
9. boliviano.
10. book.
11. born.
12. breadth.
13. British.
14. brother.
15. brotherhood.

b.

1. bachelor.
2. bale.
3. Baseball. base; baseman.
4. bass.
5. basso.
6. bay.
7. billion.
8. blend of; blended.
9. book.
10. born.
11. breadth.
12. brother.
13. brotherhood.

B-

U.S. Military.
(in designations of aircraft) bomber: B-29.

bar

3[bahr]
–noun Physics.
1. a centimeter-gram-second unit of pressure, equal to one million dynes per square centimeter.
2. (formerly) microbar. Abbreviation: b

Origin:
1900–05; < Gk báros weight; cf. barometer, isobar

barn

2[bahrn]
–noun Physics.
a unit of nuclear cross section, equal to 10−24 square centimeter. Abbreviation: b

Origin:
1945–50; special use of barn 1

bol⋅i⋅var

[bol-uh-ver, buh-lee-vahr; Sp. baw-lee-vahr]
–noun, plural bol⋅i⋅vars, Spanish. bo⋅li⋅va⋅res [baw-lee-vah-res] .
a coin and monetary unit of Venezuela, equal to 100 centimos. Abbreviation: B.

Origin:
1880–85; < AmerSp, after S. Bolívar
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2010.
Cite This Source Link To b
b 1   (bē)   
n.   pl. b's or B's also bs or Bs
  1. The second letter of the modern English alphabet.

  2. Any of the speech sounds represented by the letter b.

  3. The second in a series.

  4. Something shaped like the letter B.

  5. B The second best or second highest in quality or rank: a mark of B on an English theme.

  6. 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.

  7. 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.

b 2  
abbr.  
  1. Physics barn

  2. or B bel

  3. bottom quark

  4. breadth

B 1  
  1. The symbol for the element boron.

  2. The symbol for magnetic flux density.

B 2  
abbr.  
  1. baryon number

  2. Baseball base

  3. Music bass

  4. billion

  5. bishop (chess)

barn   (bärn)   
n.  
  1. A large farm building used for storing farm products and sheltering livestock.

  2. A large shed for the housing of vehicles, such as railroad cars.

  3. A particularly large, typically bare building: lived in a barn of a country house.

  4. 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.]
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.
bass 2   (bās)   
n.  
  1. A low-pitched sound or tone.

  2. 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.

  3. An instrument, especially a double bass, that produces tones in a low register.

adj.  
  1. Having a deep tone.

  2. Low in pitch.


[Middle English bas, lowest musical part, from bas, low; see base2.]
bel   (běl)   
n.   Abbr. b or B
Ten decibels.

[After Alexander Graham Bell.]
bish·op   (bĭsh'əp)   
n.  
  1. 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.

  2. Abbr. B Games A usually miter-shaped chess piece that can move diagonally across any number of unoccupied spaces.

  3. 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.]
bo·ron   (bôr'ŏn', bōr'-)   
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.
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.
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.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Word Origin & History

bar  (3)
"whole body of lawyers, the legal profession," 1559, a sense which derives ultimately from the railing that separated benchers from the hall in the Inns of Court. Students who had attained a certain standing were "called" to it to take part in the important exercises of the house. After c.1600, however, this was popularly assumed to mean the bar in a courtroom, which was the wooden railing marking off the area around the judge's seat, where prisoners stood for arraignment and where a barrister (q.v.) stood to plead. As the place where the business of court was done, bar in this sense had become synonymous with "court" by c.1330.

barn 
O.E. bereærn "barn," lit. "barley house," from bere "barley" (see barley) + aern "house," metathesized from *rann, *rasn (cf. O.N. rann, Goth. razn "house," O.E. rest "resting place"). Barnstorming first applied 1815 to a theatrical troupe's performances in upstate N.Y. barns (usually featuring short action pieces to suit vulgar tastes); extended 1896 to electioneering, 1928 to itinerant airplane pilots who performed stunts at fairs and races. Barn door figurative for "broad target" and "great size" since 1547.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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Financial Dictionary

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

Investopedia.com. Copyright © 1999-2005 - All rights reserved. Owned and Operated by Investopedia Inc.
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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.


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 repay principal over a long period.

Wall Street Words: An A to Z Guide to Investment Terms by David L. Scott.
Copyright © 2003. Published by Houghton Mifflin.
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Legal Dictionary

Main Entry: bar
Function: transitive verb
Inflected Forms: barred; bar·ring
1 : to keep out : EXCLUDE bar the items from sale>
2 : to prevent from doing or accomplishing (something) bar her recovery> bars his reinstatement>
3 : PRECLUDE: as a : to act as a bar to (as a claim or action) bars actions —Louisiana Civil Code> barred the subsequent claim> b : to prevent (a party) from bringing a claim or action barred by the judgment…from relitigating their claims —Roach v. Teamsters Local Union Number 688, 595 Federal Reporter, Second Series 446 (1979)> —see also ESTOP —compare MERGE 2bar·ra·ble adjective
Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of Law, © 1996 Merriam-Webster, Inc.
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Medical Dictionary

Main Entry: b
Function: abbreviation
1 bacillus
2 barometric
3 bath
4 Baumé scale
5 behavior
6 bel
7 bicuspid
8 born
9 brother

Main Entry: B
Function: symbol
boron

Main Entry: bar
Function: abbreviation
barometer; barometric

Main Entry: barn
Pronunciation: 'bärn
Function: noun
: a unit of area equal to 1024square centimeters that is used innuclear physics for measuring cross section
Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary, © 2002 Merriam-Webster, Inc.
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b or B
abbr.
blood (used as a subscript)

B
The symbol for the element boron.

bar (bär)
n.

  1. The international unit of pressure equal to 1 megadyne (106 dyne) per square centimeter or 0.987 atmosphere.

  2. A metal segment of greater length than width which serves to connect two or more parts of a removable partial denture.

  3. A segment of tissue or a tight cellular junction that serves to constrict the passage of fluid, usually urine.

The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.
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Science Dictionary
B  
  1. The symbol for boron.

  2. The symbol for magnetic field.


bar   (bär)  Pronunciation Key 
  1. A unit used to measure atmospheric pressure. It is equal to a force of 100,000 newtons per square meter of surface area, or 0.987 atmosphere.

  2. An elongated, offshore ridge of sand, gravel, or other unconsolidated sediment, formed by the action of waves or long-shore currents and submerged at least during high tide. Bars are especially common near the mouths of rivers or estuaries.

  3. A ridgelike mound of sand, gravel or silt formed within a stream, along its banks, or at its mouth. Bars form where the stream's current slows down, causing sediment to be deposited.


boron   (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.
The American Heritage® Science Dictionary
Copyright © 2002. Published by Houghton Mifflin. All rights reserved.
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Computing Dictionary

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)

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

The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing, © 1993-2007 Denis Howe
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Abbreviations & Acronyms
b
  1. bit

  2. barn

B
  1. baryon number

  2. bass

  3. be (shortwave transmission)

  4. Belgium (international vehicle ID)

  5. billion

  6. bishop

  7. Black (as in personal ads)

  8. boron

  9. byte

  10. magnetic flux density

The American Heritage® Abbreviations Dictionary, Third Edition
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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