14-letter words containing a, n, f
- labyrinth fish — any of several freshwater fishes of the order Labyrinthi, found in southeastern Asia and Africa, having a labyrinthine structure above each gill chamber enabling them to breathe air while out of water.
- lady bountiful — a wealthy lady in George Farquhar's The Beaux' Stratagem, noted for her kindness and generosity.
- lambda lifting — A program transformation to remove free variables. An expression containing a free variable is replaced by a function applied to that variable. E.g. f x = g 3 where g y = y + x x is a free variable of g so it is added as an extra argument: f x = g 3 x where g y x = y + x Functions like this with no free variables are known as supercombinators and are traditionally given upper-case names beginning with "$". This transformation tends to produce many supercombinators of the form f x = g x which can be eliminated by eta reduction and substitution. Changing the order of the parameters may also allow more optimisations. References to global (top-level) constants and functions are not transformed to function parameters though they are technically free variables. A closely related technique is closure conversion. See also Full laziness.
- land of beulah — (in Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress) the peaceful land in which the pilgrim awaits the call to the Celestial City.
- law of cosines — a law stating that the square of a side of a plane triangle is equal to the sum of the squares of the other two sides minus twice the product of the other sides multiplied by the cosine of the angle between them.
- law of nations — international law.
- lawrence frame — a gilded frame for a circular or oval painting, having a rectangular exterior form.
- leaf-nosed bat — any of various New and Old World bats, as of the families Phyllostomatidae, Rhinolophidae, and Hipposideridae, having a leaflike flap of skin at the tip of the nose.
- leafcutter ant — any of various South American ants of the genus Atta that cut pieces of leaves and use them as fertilizer for the fungus on which they feed
- left-branching — (of a grammatical construction) characterized by greater structural complexity in the position preceding the head, as the phrase my brother's friend's house; having most of the constituents on the left in a tree diagram (opposed to right-branching).
- left-hand buoy — a distinctive buoy marking the side of a channel regarded as the left or port side.
- life and death — ending with the death or possible death of one of the participants; crucially important: The cobra was engaged in a life-and-death struggle with the mongoose.
- life assurance — insurance: pays if holder dies
- life insurance — insurance providing for payment of a sum of money to a named beneficiary upon the death of the policyholder or to the policyholder if still living after reaching a specified age.
- life-affirming — A life-affirming activity or attitude emphasizes the positive aspects of life.
- life-and-death — ending with the death or possible death of one of the participants; crucially important: The cobra was engaged in a life-and-death struggle with the mongoose.
- life-enhancing — If you describe something as life-enhancing, you mean that it makes you feel happier and more content.
- lift attendant — a person who operates a lift, esp in large public or commercial buildings and hotels
- light infantry — foot soldiers with lightweight weapons and minimal field equipment.
- lignosulfonate — a brown powder consisting of a sulfonate salt made from waste liquor of the sulfate pulping process of soft wood: used in concrete, leather tanning, as an additive in oil-well drilling mud, and as a source of vanillin.
- lindelof space — a topological space having the property that every cover consisting of open sets has a subcover consisting of a countable number of subsets.
- line of attack — a line of attack to a problem or situation is how you approach it
- line of battle — a line formed by troops or ships for delivering or receiving an attack.
- logania family — the plant family Loganiaceae, typified by herbaceous plants, trees, and shrubs of warm regions having usually opposite leaves, clusters of regular flowers, and fruit in the form of a berry, capsule, or fleshy fruit, and including the butterfly bush, Carolina jessamine, logania, and trees of the genus Strychnos, which are the source of curare, nux vomica, and strychnine.
- lost and found — a room in a public place for items left behind and from which the owners may retrieve them.
- lunatic fringe — members on the periphery of any group, especially political, social, or religious, who hold extreme or fanatical views.
- machine finish — a very smooth paper surface, created by a machine.
- magnetic field — a region of space near a magnet, electric current, or moving charged particle in which a magnetic force acts on any other magnet, electric current, or moving charged particle.
- magnetic force — the repelling or attracting force between a magnet and a ferromagnetic material, between a magnet and a current-carrying conductor, etc.
- magnifications — Plural form of magnification.
- maid of honour — A maid of honour is the chief bridesmaid at a wedding.
- main door flat — a flat in a tenement that can be accessed directly from outside rather than one which can only be accessed via a communal stairwell
- make a fortune — win, earn a vast amount of money
- make an end of — the last part or extremity, lengthwise, of anything that is longer than it is wide or broad: the end of a street; the end of a rope.
- malfunctioning — failure to function properly: a malfunction of the liver; the malfunction of a rocket.
- man of destiny — epithet of Napoleon I.
- man of galilee — Jesus.
- man of letters — highly educated man
- man of sorrows — a person alluded to by Isaiah (Isa. 53:3) and interpreted as being the Messiah
- man-made fibre — a type of fibre that is made artificially, such as polyester or rayon, rather than occurring naturally, like cotton or wool
- managed forest — a sustainable forest in which usually at least one tree is planted for every tree felled
- manifestations — An event, action, or object that clearly shows or embodies something, esp. a theory or an abstract idea.
- mansard (roof) — a roof with two slopes on each of the four sides, the lower steeper than the upper
- manufacturable — the making of goods or wares by manual labor or by machinery, especially on a large scale: the manufacture of television sets.
- massif central — a great plateau and the chief water divide of France, in the central part.
- meadow saffron — autumn crocus.
- mean free path — the average distance that a particle travels between successive collisions with other particles.
- meaningfulness — full of meaning, significance, purpose, or value; purposeful; significant: a meaningful wink; a meaningful choice.
- medal of honor — The Medal of Honor is a medal that is given to members of the U.S. armed forces who have shown special courage or bravery in battle.
- mefenamic acid — a white powder, C 1 5 H 1 5 NO 2 , used as a mild analgesic, anti-inflammatory, and antipyretic in certain types of arthritis and for the relief of moderate short-term pain due to dysmenorrhea.