16-letter words containing n, s, a, i
- left parenthesis — (character) "(". ASCII character 40. Common names: left paren; left parenthesis; left; open; paren (")" = thesis); open paren; open parenthesis; left parenthesis; left banana. Rare: so (")" = already); lparen; ITU-T: opening parenthesis; open round bracket, left round bracket, INTERCAL: wax (")" = wane); parenthisey (")" = unparenthisey); left ear. Paired with right parenthesis (")").
- 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
- lesbian cymatium — cyma reversa.
- lesser celandine — a Eurasian plant, Ranunculus ficaria, of the buttercup family, having heart-shaped leaves and glossy yellow flowers, naturalized in North America.
- lesser sanhedrin — Sanhedrin (def 2).
- lewis and harris — the northernmost island of the Hebrides, in NW Scotland. 825 sq. mi. (2135 sq. km).
- lexical analyser — (language) (Or "scanner") The initial input stage of a language processor (e.g. a compiler), the part that performs lexical analysis.
- lexical analysis — (programming) (Or "linear analysis", "scanning") The first stage of processing a language. The stream of characters making up the source program or other input is read one at a time and grouped into lexemes (or "tokens") - word-like pieces such as keywords, identifiers, literals and punctuation. The lexemes are then passed to the parser.
- libation-bearers — Choëphori.
- liberal unionist — a Liberal who opposed Gladstone's policy of Irish Home Rule in 1886 and after
- lightheartedness — carefree; cheerful; merry: a lighthearted laugh.
- 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.
- like gangbusters — a law-enforcement officer who specializes in breaking up organized crime, often by forceful or sensational means.
- linguistic atlas — dialect atlas.
- lipstick lesbian — a lesbian who is feminine in manner or appearance; a femme.
- listen to reason — be persuaded
- live in the past — If you accuse someone of living in the past, you mean that they think too much about the past or believe that things are the same as they were in the past.
- living daylights — having life; being alive; not dead: living persons.
- living standards — standard of living; material quality of life
- lizard peninsula — a promontory in SW England, in SW Cornwall: the southernmost point in Great Britain
- 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 …
- long-established — having a long history; old
- 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.
- luminosity class — a classification of stars of a given spectral type according to their luminosity, breaking them down into dwarfs, giants, and supergiants.
- lymphangiectasia — (medicine) dilation of the lymphatic vessels.
- lymphangiectasis — Alt form lymphangiectasia.
- mach's principle — the proposition that there is no absolute space and that the inertia and acceleration of a body are determined by all of the matter of the universe.
- machiavellianism — of, like, or befitting Machiavelli.
- machine washable — suitable for washing in a washing machine
- machinist's mate — a petty officer trained to operate, repair, etc. ships' engines
- maclaurin series — a Taylor series in which the reference point is zero.
- macro-linguistic — a field of study concerned with language in its broadest sense and including cultural and behavioral features associated with language.
- macroinstruction — macro (def 5).
- macrolinguistics — a field of study concerned with language in its broadest sense and including cultural and behavioral features associated with language.
- macrorestriction — In physical gene mapping, the digestion of DNA of high molecular weight with a restriction enzyme having a low number of restriction sites.
- magazine section — a magazinelike section in the Sunday editions of many newspapers, containing articles rather than news items and often letters, reviews, stories, puzzles, etc.
- magmatic stoping — the process by which country rock is broken up and engulfed by the upward movement of magma
- magnesiochromite — (mineral) A chromite species with the formula MgCr2O4.
- magnetic compass — a compass having a magnetized needle generally in line with the magnetic poles of the earth.
- magnetic pyrites — Mineralogy. pyrrhotite.
- magnetoacoustics — (used with a singular verb) the branch of physics studying the effects of magnetism on acoustics or their interaction.
- magnetochemistry — the study of magnetic and chemical phenomena in their relation to one another.
- magnetoresistive — Of or pertaining to magnetoresistance.
- magnetostriction — a change in dimensions exhibited by ferromagnetic materials when subjected to a magnetic field.