16-letter words containing s, a, o
- kingdom of arles — a kingdom in SE France which had dissolved by 1378: known as the Kingdom of Burgundy until about 1200
- kirchhoff's laws — the law that the algebraic sum of the currents flowing toward any point in an electric network is zero.
- kleptoparasitism — The parasitic theft of captured prey, nest material, etc. from animals of the same or another species.
- knapsack problem — the problem of determining which numbers from a given collection of numbers have been added together to yield a specific sum: used in cryptography to encipher (and sometimes decipher) messages.
- knights of labor — a secret workingmen's organization formed in 1869 to defend the interests of labor.
- knights of malta — the order of Hospitalers.
- know one's place — a particular portion of space, whether of definite or indefinite extent.
- know what's what — to know how one thing or things in general work
- kolyma mountains — a mountain range in NE Siberia, Russia, near the Sea of Okhotsk, rising to over 6000 feet (1830 meters).
- kunlun mountains — mountain system in W China, between Tibet & Xinjiang: highest peak, c. 25,300 ft (7,711 m)
- kurdaitcha shoes — (in certain Central Australian Aboriginal tribes) the emu-feather shoes worn by the kurdaitcha on his mission so that his footsteps may not be traced
- labour relations — Labour relations refers to the relationship between employers and employees in industry, and the political decisions and laws that affect it.
- labour-intensive — Labour-intensive industries or methods of making things involve a lot of workers. Compare capital-intensive.
- lactovegetarians — Plural form of lactovegetarian.
- ladies'-eardrops — lady's-earrings.
- lady of pleasure — a prostitute.
- language isolate — isolate (def 9).
- laparoscopically — By means of laparoscopy.
- lapsang souchong — a large-leafed variety of China tea with a slightly smoky flavour
- latissimus dorsi — a broad, flat muscle on each side of the midback, the action of which draws the arm backward and downward and rotates the front of the arm toward the body.
- 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
- leasehold reform — reform of the law relating to leasehold property
- leave of absence — permission to be absent from duty, employment, service, etc.; leave.
- legal separation — judicial separation.
- legislative veto — a veto exercised by a legislature nullifying or reversing an action, decision, etc., of the executive branch.
- leptosporangiate — (of ferns) having each sporangium developing from a single cell, rather than from a group, and normally with specialized explosive spore dispersal
- lesser spearwort — a Eurasian ranunculaceous plant, R. flammula, of the genus Ranunculus, which grows in wet places and has long narrow leaves and yellow flowers
- levallois-perret — a suburb of Paris, in N France, on the Seine.
- lexicostatistics — the statistical study of the vocabulary of a language or languages for historical purposes.
- libation-bearers — Choëphori.
- liberal unionist — a Liberal who opposed Gladstone's policy of Irish Home Rule in 1886 and after
- lick observatory — the astronomical observatory of the University of California, situated on Mount Hamilton, near San Jose, California, and having a 120-inch (3-meter) reflecting telescope and a 36-inch (91-cm) refracting telescope.
- 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.
- lissajous figure — the series of plane curves traced by an object executing two mutually perpendicular harmonic motions.
- 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.
- local oscillator — the oscillator in a superheterodyne receiver whose output frequency is mixed with the incoming modulated radio-frequency carrier signal to produce the required intermediate frequency
- 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