16-letter words containing n, a, s, o, l
- labour-intensive — Labour-intensive industries or methods of making things involve a lot of workers. Compare capital-intensive.
- lactovegetarians — Plural form of lactovegetarian.
- language isolate — isolate (def 9).
- lapsang souchong — a large-leafed variety of China tea with a slightly smoky flavour
- lattice constant — a parameter, either a measure of length or angle, that defines the size and shape of the unit cell of a crystal lattice.
- law of exponents — the theorem stating the elementary properties of exponents, as the property that the product of the same bases, each raised to an exponent, is equal to the base raised to the sum of the exponents: xa ⋅ xb = xa + b .
- law of parsimony — a principle according to which an explanation of a thing or event is made with the fewest possible assumptions.
- lawson criterion — (in a hypothetical nuclear fusion reactor) the requirement that in order for the energy produced by fusion to exceed the energy expended in causing the fusion, the product of the density of the fuel and the time during which it is confined at that density (Lawson product) must be greater than a certain number that depends on the kind of fuel used.
- lay oneself open — to make oneself vulnerable (to criticism, attack, etc)
- lead by the nose — the part of the face or facial region in humans and certain animals that contains the nostrils and the organs of smell and functions as the usual passageway for air in respiration: in humans it is a prominence in the center of the face formed of bone and cartilage, serving also to modify or modulate the voice.
- leading question — a question so worded as to suggest the proper or desired answer.
- league champions — the team that has come top of the league
- leaps and bounds — You can use in leaps and bounds or by leaps and bounds to emphasize that someone or something is improving or increasing quickly and greatly.
- learning process — a process of learning
- leave of absence — permission to be absent from duty, employment, service, etc.; leave.
- legal separation — judicial separation.
- leptosporangiate — (of ferns) having each sporangium developing from a single cell, rather than from a group, and normally with specialized explosive spore dispersal
- libation-bearers — Choëphori.
- liberal unionist — a Liberal who opposed Gladstone's policy of Irish Home Rule in 1886 and after
- lignin sulfonate — 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.
- listen to reason — be persuaded
- loan translation — the process whereby a compound word or expression is created by literal translation of each of the elements of a compound word or expression in another language, as marriage of convenience from French mariage de convenance.
- logical constant — one of the connectives of a given system of formal logic, esp those of the sentential calculus, not, and, or, and if … then …
- lonely hearts ad — an advertisement placed by someone who is trying to find a lover or a friend
- long-established — having a long history; old
- long-nosed skate — a fish; Raja oxyrinchus
- long-tail claims — Long-tail claims are claims that are made or settled a long time after the insurance policy has expired.
- lord howe island — an island in the S Pacific, E of Australia: a dependency of New South Wales. 5 sq. mi. (13 sq. km).
- lords-and-ladies — (used with a singular verb) cuckoopint.
- lost river range — a mountain range in E central Idaho. Highest peak, Borah Peak (also highest in the state), 12,662 feet (3862 meters).
- louisiana french — French as spoken in Louisiana; Cajun. Abbreviation: LaF.
- lourenco marques — former name of Maputo.
- low-carbon steel — steel containing between 0.04 and 0.25 per cent carbon
- luminosity class — a classification of stars of a given spectral type according to their luminosity, breaking them down into dwarfs, giants, and supergiants.
- macro-linguistic — a field of study concerned with language in its broadest sense and including cultural and behavioral features associated with language.
- macrolinguistics — a field of study concerned with language in its broadest sense and including cultural and behavioral features associated with language.
- malcontentedness — not satisfied or content with currently prevailing conditions or circumstances.
- manganese nodule — a small irregular concretion found on deep ocean floors having high concentrations of certain metals, esp manganese
- manganese violet — a moderate to strong purple color.
- marginal costing — a method of cost accounting and decision making used for internal reporting in which only marginal costs are charged to cost units and fixed costs are treated as a lump sum
- marine biologist — scientist who studies sea life
- marsh cinquefoil — a variety of cinquefoil, Potentilla palustris, that grows in marshy areas
- marsupialization — (surgery) The surgical technique of cutting a slit into a cyst and suturing its edges to form a continuous surface from the exterior to the interior of the cyst, allowing it to drain freely.
- mason-dixon line — the boundary between Pennsylvania and Maryland, partly surveyed by Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon between 1763 and 1767, popularly considered before the end of slavery as a line of demarcation between free and slave states.
- medieval cornish — the Cornish language of the Middle Ages, usually dated from the 14th century to 1600.
- menstrual period — the bleeding from the womb that occurs approximately monthly in nonpregnant women of reproductive age
- mercator sailing — sailing according to rhumb lines, which appear as straight lines on a Mercator chart.
- microcrystalline — minutely crystalline; composed of microscopic crystals.
- microencapsulate — (transitive) To embed by means of microencapsulation.
- midair collision — a crash, such as a plane crash, that takes place in the air