baling (en)

(verb) to make up into a bale

Balzacian (en)

writing that's similar to the plays and novels of the French writer Honoré de Balzac; a Balzacian story is realistic, emphasizing tiny details to capture a scene or setting

baneful (en)

destructive; pernicious

baroque (en)

extravagantly ornate, florid, and convoluted in character or style

batrachian (en)

(noun) amphibian / (noun) frog toad

Battle of Thermopylae (en)

fought between an alliance of Greek city-states, led by King Leonidas of Sparta, and the Persian Empire of Xerxes I over the course of three days, during the second Persian invasion of Greece; the subject of the movie 300

bayadere (en)

(noun) a fabric with horizontal stripes in strongly contrasted colors

beatification (en)

(verb) to make supremely happy / (verb) to declare to have attained the blessedness of heaven and authorize the title “Blessed” and limited public religious honor

bedizen (en)

(verb) dress up or decorate gaudily

beleaguered (en)

besieged, troubled, beset with difficulties

belfry (en)

(noun) a bell tower / (noun) one surmounting or attached to another structure / (noun) a room or framework for enclosing a bell / (noun) head

belvedere (en)

(noun) a structure (as a cupola or a summerhouse) designed to command a view

beneficence (en)

the doing of good; active goodness or kindness; charity

Benford's Law (en)

(aka the first-digit law) in many real-life sets of numerical data, the leading significant digit is likely to be small

Bentham's push-pin (en)

a quote by English philosopher Jeremy Bentham from The Rationale of Reward: "Prejudice apart, the game of push-pin is of equal value with the arts and sciences of music and poetry."

Berkeleyan (en)

(adjective) of, relating to, or suggestive of Bishop Berkeley or his system of philosophical idealism, whose fundamental proposition can be summed up as "esse est percepi" (Latin for "To be is to be perceived")

berm (en)

(noun) a narrow shelf, path, or ledge typically at the top or bottom of a slope / (noun) a mound or wall of earth or sand / (noun) the shoulder of a road

bibulous (en)

(adjective) highly absorbent / (adjective) fond of alcoholic beverages / (adjective) of, relating to, or marked by the consumption of alcoholic beverages

bien pensant (en)

(foreign term) right-minded; one who holds orthodox views

bier (en)

(noun) a framework for carrying / (noun) a stand on which a corpse or coffin is placed / (noun) a coffin together with its stand

bifid (en)

(adjective) divided into two equal lobes or parts by a median cleft

billet-doux (fr)

love letter

binnacle (en)

(noun) a housing for a ship's compass and a lamp

biotope (en)

(noun) a region uniform in environmental conditions and in its populations of animals and plants for which it is the habitat

bishopric (en)

(noun) diocese / (noun) the office of bishop / (noun) the administrative body of a Mormon ward consisting of a bishop and two high priests as counselors