18-letter words containing l, a, s
- israel ben eliezer — (Israel ben Eliezer"Besht") c1700–60, Ukrainian teacher and religious leader: founder of the Hasidic movement of Judaism.
- italian corn salad — a southern European plant, Valerianella eriocarpa, of the valerian family, having edible, spoon-shaped, hairy leaves and dense clusters of pale-blue flowers.
- italian somaliland — a former Italian colony and trust territory in E Africa: now part of the Democratic Somali Republic.
- iverson's language — APL, which went unnamed for many years.
- jack of all trades — a person who is adept at many different kinds of work.
- jack-of-all-trades — a person who is adept at many different kinds of work.
- jacksonville beach — a city in NE Florida.
- james-lange theory — a theory that emotions are caused by bodily sensations; for example, we are sad because we weep
- jerusalem syndrome — a delusive condition affecting some visitors to Jerusalem in which the sufferer identifies with a major figure from his or her religious background
- job classification — an arrangement of different types of employment within a company or industry, according to the skill, experience, or training required.
- joint consultation — a formal system of communication between the management of an organization and the employees' representatives used prior to taking decisions affecting the workforce, usually effected through a joint consultative committee
- just (plain) folks — simple and unassuming; not snobbish
- kentucky bluegrass — a grass, Poa pratensis, of the Mississippi valley, used for pasturage and lawns.
- king of the castle — most powerful figure
- king william's war — the war (1689–97) in which England and its American colonies and Indian allies opposed France and its Indian allies and which constituted the American phase of the War of the Grand Alliance.
- king's regulations — (in Britain and the Commonwealth when the sovereign is male) the code of conduct for members of the armed forces that deals with discipline, aspects of military law, etc
- king-of-the-salmon — a ribbonfish, Trachypterus altivelis, of northern parts of the Pacific Ocean.
- kirtland's warbler — a wood warbler, Dendroica kirtlandii, breeding only in north-central Michigan and wintering in the Bahamas, bluish gray above, striped with black and pale yellow below: an endangered species.
- knotted cranesbill — a British wildflower, Geranium nodosum, an meadow geranium with bright pink or purple flowers
- known lazy bastard — (abuse) (KLB) A term, used among technical support staff, for a user who repeatedly asks for help with problems whose solutions are clearly explained in the documentation, and persists in doing so after having been told to RTFM. KLBs are singled out for special treatment (i.e. ridicule), especially if they have been heard to say "It's so boring to read the manual! Why don't you just tell me?". The deepest pit in Hell is reserved for KLBs whose questions reveal total ignorance of the basic concepts (e.g., "How do I make a font in Excel?", "Where do I turn on my RAM?"), and who refuse to accept that their questions are neither simple nor well-formed.
- komsomolsk-on-amur — city in SE Russia, on the Amur River: pop. 309,000
- krause's corpuscle — any of numerous encapsulated nerve endings occurring in the skin and mucous membranes, functioning as sensory cold receptors.
- lactose intolerant — cannot digest milk
- lagrange's theorem — the theorem that the order of each subgroup of a finite group is a factor of the order of the group.
- lambda abstraction — A term in lambda-calculus denoting a function. A lambda abstraction begins with a lower-case lambda (represented as "\" in this document), followed by a variable name (the "bound variable"), a full stop and a lambda expression (the body). The body is taken to extend as far to the right as possible so, for example an expression, \ x . \ y . x+y is read as \ x . (\ y . x+y). A nested abstraction such as this is often abbreviated to: \ x y . x + y The lambda expression (\ v . E) denotes a function which takes an argument and returns the term E with all free occurrences of v replaced by the actual argument. Application is represented by juxtaposition so (\ x . x) 42 represents the identity function applied to the constant 42. A lambda abstraction in Lisp is written as the symbol lambda, a list of zero or more variable names and a list of zero or more terms, e.g. (lambda (x y) (plus x y)) Lambda expressions in Haskell are written as a backslash, "\", one or more patterns (e.g. variable names), "->" and an expression, e.g. \ x -> x.
- landscape gardener — sb who designs gardens
- landscape painting — art: depicting natural scenery
- language universal — a trait or property of language that exists, or has the potential to exist, in all languages.
- last but not least — lastly
- last chance saloon — a place frequented by unsavoury or contemptible people
- last in, first out — The expression last in, first out is used to say that the last person who started work in an organization should be the first person to leave it, if fewer people are needed.
- last-in, first-out — an inventory plan based on the assumption that materials constituting manufacturing costs should be carried on the books at the market price of the last lot received. Abbreviation: LIFO. Compare first-in, first-out.
- lateral resistance — resistance to sidewise motion caused by wind pressure, supplied by the immersed portion of a hull of a vessel.
- law of mass action — the statement that the rate of a chemical reaction is proportional to the concentrations of the reacting substances.
- law of segregation — the principle, originated by Gregor Mendel, stating that during the production of gametes the two copies of each hereditary factor segregate so that offspring acquire one factor from each parent.
- lay down your arms — If soldiers lay down their arms, they stop fighting and give up their weapons.
- lay one's hands on — the terminal, prehensile part of the upper limb in humans and other primates, consisting of the wrist, metacarpal area, fingers, and thumb.
- laying on of hands — Theology. a rite in which the cleric's hands are placed on the head of a person being confirmed, ordained, or the like.
- learned profession — any of the three vocations of theology, law, and medicine, commonly held to require highly advanced learning. Compare profession (def 1).
- leave sth too late — If you leave something too late, you delay doing it so that when you eventually do it, it is useless or ineffective.
- legislative branch — the branch of government having the power to make laws; the legislature.
- lenticular process — a method for producing images with a three-dimensional effect by photographing on lenticulated film.
- lesser whitethroat — an Old World warbler, Sylvia curruca, having a greyish-brown plumage with a white throat and underparts
- lifecycle analysis — Lifecycle analysis is the consideration of all the energy and materials that are needed to make a product and to dispose of it.
- lifesaving service — a private organization or government agency for general marine rescue operations.
- light displacement — the weight of a ship with all its permanent equipment, excluding the weight of cargo, persons, ballast, dunnage, and fuel, but usually including the weight of permanent ballast and water used to operate steam machinery.
- lightning arrester — a device for preventing damage to radio, telephonic, or other electric equipment from lightning or other high-voltage currents, using spark gaps to carry the current to the ground without passing through the device.
- like a house afire — a building in which people live; residence for human beings.
- limestone pavement — a horizontal surface of exposed limestone in which the joints have been enlarged, cutting the surface into roughly rectangular blocks
- limit-state design — a design criterion specifying that with acceptable probabilities a structure will not reach a limit state in which it either is unfit for the use for which it was designed (unavailability limit state) or fails (ultimate limit state)