17-letter words containing t, o, l, e
- liberal education — an education based primarily on the liberal arts, emphasizing the development of intellectual abilities as opposed to the acquisition of professional skills.
- liberty of speech — freedom of speech.
- lick the boots of — to be servile, obsequious, or flattering towards
- lie in wait (for) — to wait so as to catch after planning an ambush or trap (for)
- life and/or death — If you say that something is a matter of life and death, you are emphasizing that it is extremely important, often because someone may die or suffer great harm if people do not act immediately.
- life imprisonment — long-term prison sentence
- life of the party — most lively, outgoing person
- light mineral oil — a colorless, oily, almost tasteless, water-insoluble liquid, usually of either a standard light density (light mineral oil) or a standard heavy density (heavy mineral oil) consisting of mixtures of hydrocarbons obtained from petroleum by distillation: used chiefly as a lubricant, in the manufacture of cosmetics, and in medicine as a laxative.
- lighthouse keeper — a person who mans a lighthouse and makes sure that the light is working properly
- limestone lettuce — a variety of lettuce derived from Bibb lettuce.
- line conditioning — (communications) The adjustment of electrical characteristics of, e.g., twisted pair telephone lines by insertion of components such as resistors, capacitors, transformers or (commonly) inductors. Lines intended for analogue voice signals usually have inductors inserted every few miles; such a line is said to be "loaded". The special purpose lines which have neither inductors nor the DC voltage which powers ordinary telephones are said to be "dry," and are much better for data transmission.
- line of induction — (formerly) a line of force in a magnetic field.
- line of longitude — an imaginary line on a globe, map, etc, indicating longitude
- liquid petrolatum — mineral oil.
- liquid propellant — a rocket propellant in liquid form.
- literary executor — a person entrusted with the publishable works and other papers of a deceased author.
- lithium carbonate — a colorless crystalline compound, Li 2 CO 3 , slightly soluble in water: used in ceramic and porcelain glazes, pharmaceuticals, and luminescent paints.
- lithium hydroxide — a white, crystalline, water-soluble compound, LiOH, used to absorb carbon dioxide, especially in spacesuits.
- litigation friend — a person acting on behalf of an infant or other person under legal disability
- little black book — an address book, esp. one kept by a man, with the names of women companions considered available for dating
- little blue heron — a small heron, Egretta caerulea, of the warmer parts of the Western Hemisphere, having bluish-gray plumage.
- little fork river — a river in N Minnesota, flowing N to the Rainy River on the Canadian border. 132 miles (212 km) long.
- 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.
- lobster thermidor — a dish of cooked lobster meat placed back in the shell with a cream sauce, sprinkled with grated cheese and melted butter, and browned in the oven.
- 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
- local examination — any of various examinations, such as the GCSE, set by university boards and conducted in local centres, schools, etc
- loch ness monster — a large aquatic animal resembling a serpent or a plesiosaurlike reptile, reported to have been seen in the waters of Loch Ness, Scotland, but not proved to exist.
- locomotive driver — an engine driver
- locomotive engine — a self-propelled engine driven by steam, electricity, or diesel power and used for drawing trains along railway tracks
- loggerhead turtle — a sea turtle, Caretta caretta, having a large head: now greatly reduced in number.
- logical operation — Boolean operation.
- long in the tooth — (in most vertebrates) one of the hard bodies or processes usually attached in a row to each jaw, serving for the prehension and mastication of food, as weapons of attack or defense, etc., and in mammals typically composed chiefly of dentin surrounding a sensitive pulp and covered on the crown with enamel.
- longitudinal wave — a wave in which the direction of displacement is the same as the direction of propagation, as a sound wave.
- loose-joint hinge — a hinge having a knuckle formed from half of each flap, and with the upper half removable from the pin.
- lord of the flies — a novel (1954) by William Golding.
- lose the exchange — to lose a rook in return for a bishop or knight
- lost in the noise — Synonym lost in the underflow. This term is from signal processing, where signals of very small amplitude cannot be separated from low-intensity noise in the system. Though popular among hackers, it is not confined to hackerdom; physicists, engineers, astronomers, and statisticians all use it.
- louisiana tanager — western tanager.
- low-velocity zone — a layer or zone in the earth in which the velocity of seismic waves is slightly lower than in the layers above and below. The asthenosphere is thought to be such a zone
- lower forty-eight — the forty-eight conterminous states of the United States
- lower paleolithic — See under Paleolithic.
- 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
- lumpenproletariat — the lowest level of the proletariat comprising unskilled workers, vagrants, and criminals and characterized by a lack of class identification and solidarity.
- lymphadenopathies — Plural form of lymphadenopathy.
- lymphocytopoiesis — Lymphopoiesis.
- macroevolutionary — Pertaining to, or as a result of macroevolution.
- magnetic monopole — a hypothetical very heavy particle with an isolated magnetic north pole or magnetic south pole.
- magnetoelasticity — the phenomenon, consisting of a change in magnetic properties, exhibited by a ferromagnetic material to which stress is applied.