16-letter words containing s, l, a
- lever escapement — an escapement in which a pivoted lever, made to oscillate by the escape wheel, engages a balance staff and causes it to oscillate.
- 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.
- 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
- library pictures — a caption used to alert viewers that footage being broadcast is from an earlier time and is not happening now
- 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.
- 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.
- lissajous figure — the series of plane curves traced by an object executing two mutually perpendicular harmonic motions.
- listen to reason — be persuaded
- literalistically — adherence to the exact letter or the literal sense, as in translation or interpretation: to interpret the law with uncompromising literalism.
- lithium stearate — a white, crystalline, slightly water-soluble powder, LiC 18 H 35 O 2 , used chiefly in cosmetics, in plastics, and as a lubricant in powder metallurgy.
- little smalltalk — A line-oriented near-subset of Smalltalk-80 written in C by Tim Budd <[email protected]>. Version 3 runs on Unix, IBM PC, Atari and VMS.
- 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
- lleu llaw gyffes — the son of Gwydion and Arianhrod, provided with a name, weapons, and a wife through the magic and trickery of Gwydion in spite of the curses of Arianhrod.
- 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
- 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).
- lost-wax process — a process of investment casting in which a refractory mold is built up around a pattern of wax and then baked so as to melt and drain off the wax.
- 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
- lucas van leyden — (Lucas Hugensz) 1494–1533, Dutch painter and engraver.
- lumberjack shirt — a thick checked shirt, as worn by lumberjacks
- luminosity class — a classification of stars of a given spectral type according to their luminosity, breaking them down into dwarfs, giants, and supergiants.
- lump sum payment — money: one-off payment
- lymphangiectasia — (medicine) dilation of the lymphatic vessels.
- lymphangiectasis — Alt form lymphangiectasia.
- lymphatic system — an extensive network of capillary vessels that transports the interstitial fluid of the body as lymph to the venous blood circulation
- lymphatic tissue — tissue, such as the lymph nodes, tonsils, spleen, and thymus, that produces lymphocytes
- 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
- maclaurin series — a Taylor series in which the reference point is zero.