17-letter words containing n, s, a
- lares and penates — household gods
- larmor precession — the precession of charged particles, as electrons, placed in a magnetic field, the frequency of the precession (Larmor frequency) being equal to the electronic charge times the strength of the magnetic field divided by 4π times the mass.
- last-in first-out — stack
- latent strabismus — the tendency, controllable by muscular effort, for one or both eyes to exhibit strabismus.
- latitudinarianism — Tolerance of other people's views, particularly in religious context.
- latter-day saints — a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
- laurent's theorem — the theorem that a function that is analytic on an annulus can be represented by a Laurent series on the annulus.
- league of nations — an international organization to promote world peace and cooperation that was created by the Treaty of Versailles (1919): dissolved April 1946.
- learner's license — a provisional driving licence
- learning-disabled — pertaining to or having a learning disability: a learning-disabled child.
- least fixed point — (mathematics) A function f may have many fixed points (x such that f x = x). For example, any value is a fixed point of the identity function, (\ x . x). If f is recursive, we can represent it as f = fix F where F is some higher-order function and fix F = F (fix F). The standard denotational semantics of f is then given by the least fixed point of F. This is the least upper bound of the infinite sequence (the ascending Kleene chain) obtained by repeatedly applying F to the totally undefined value, bottom. I.e. fix F = LUB {bottom, F bottom, F (F bottom), ...}. The least fixed point is guaranteed to exist for a continuous function over a cpo.
- least upper bound — an upper bound that is less than or equal to all the upper bounds of a particular set. 3 is the least upper bound of the set consisting of 1, 2, 3. Abbr.: lub.
- lebanon mountains — a mountain range extending the length of Lebanon, in the central part. Highest peak, 10,049 feet (3063 meters).
- lebesgue integral — an integral obtained by application of the theory of measure and more general than the Riemann integral.
- legal proceedings — court case
- leibniz mountains — a mountain range on the SW limb of the moon, containing the highest peaks (10 000 metres) on the moon
- leizhou peninsula — a peninsula of SE China, in SW Guangdong province, separated from Hainan Island by Hainan Strait
- level compensator — an automatic gain control device used in the receivers of telegraphic circuits.
- lexical insertion — the process in which actual morphemes of a language are substituted either for semantic material or for place-fillers in the course of a derivation of a sentence
- light dawns on sb — If light dawns on you, you begin to understand something after a period of not being able to understand it.
- limousine liberal — a wealthy left-wing person
- lincoln's sparrow — a North American sparrow, Melospiza lincolnii, having a buff breast with black streaks.
- line of scrimmage — an imaginary line parallel to the goal lines that passes from one sideline to the other through the point of the football closest to the goal line of each team.
- linear assignment — assignment problem
- linking consonant — a consonant inserted between two vowels in speech
- lisp machine lisp — (language) An extension of Maclisp, now called Zetalisp.
- listings magazine — a magazine with lists of TV and radio schedules
- livingstone daisy — a gardener's name for various species of Mesembryanthemum, esp M. criniflorum, grown as garden annuals (though several are perennial) for their brightly coloured showy flowers: family Aizoaceae
- load displacement — the weight, in long tons, of a cargo vessel loaded so that the summer load line touches the surface of the water.
- local anaesthesia — the use of anaesthetics that affect a particular area of the body
- local anaesthetic — sth injected to numb a body part for pain relief
- lombrosian school — a school of criminology, promulgating the theories and employing the methods developed by Lombroso.
- long island sound — an arm of the Atlantic between Connecticut and Long Island. 90 miles (145 km) long.
- loose-leaf binder — a hard cover with metal rings inside which is used to hold loose pieces of paper
- lose the exchange — to lose a rook in return for a bishop or knight
- louisiana tanager — western tanager.
- luggage insurance — insurance against the loss of luggage while travelling
- luminous efficacy — the quotient of the luminous flux of a radiation and its corresponding radiant flux
- luminous exitance — the ability of a surface to emit light expressed as the luminous flux per unit area at a specified point on the surface
- lymphadenopathies — Plural form of lymphadenopathy.
- lyon king of arms — the chief herald of Scotland
- macdonnell ranges — a mountain system of central Australia, in S central Northern Territory, extending about 160 km (100 miles) east and west of Alice Springs. Highest peak: Mount Zeil, 1531 m (5024 ft)
- macro-linguistics — a field of study concerned with language in its broadest sense and including cultural and behavioral features associated with language.
- macroinstructions — Plural form of macroinstruction.
- magellanic clouds — either of two irregular galactic clusters in the southern heavens that are the nearest independent star system to the Milky Way.
- magnesium sulfate — a white, water-soluble salt, MgSO 4 , used chiefly in medicine and in the processing of leather and textiles.
- magnetic constant — the permeability of free space, which has the value 4π × 10–7 henry per metre
- magnetic roasting — roasting of a nonmagnetic ore to render it magnetic so that it can be separated from gangue by means of a magnetic field.
- magnetoelasticity — the phenomenon, consisting of a change in magnetic properties, exhibited by a ferromagnetic material to which stress is applied.
- magnetoresistance — a change in the electrical resistance of a material upon exposure to a magnetic field.