12-letter words starting with l
- late bloomer — a person whose talents or capabilities are slow to develop: A late bloomer, she wrote her first novel when she was almost 50.
- late trading — trading carried out after the standard national exchanges have closed, and which is usually illegal
- lateenrigged — having lateen sails.
- latent image — an invisible image, produced on a sensitized emulsion by exposure to light, that will emerge in development.
- lateral line — the line, or system of lines, of sensory structures along the head and sides of fishes and amphibians, by which the animal is believed to detect water current and pressure changes and vibrations.
- lateral lisp — a speech defect consisting in pronouncing s and z like or nearly like the th- sounds of thin and this, respectively.
- lateral pass — a short pass thrown or tossed parallel to the line of scrimmage or slightly backward from the position of the passer.
- laterization — the weathering process by which rock is changed to laterite.
- latex rubber — rubber used to make many products such as gloves, condoms, etc, and which is made from latex, a whitish milky fluid containing protein, starch, alkaloids, etc, that is produced by many plants
- laticiferous — bearing or containing latex.
- latifundista — the owner of a latifundio in Latin America or Spain.
- latin church — the Roman Catholic Church.
- latin school — a secondary school emphasizing instruction in Latin and Greek.
- latin square — a square array of numbers, letters, etc., in which each item appears exactly once in each row and column: used in statistical analysis.
- latinization — to cause to conform to the customs, traditions, beliefs, etc., of the Latins or the Latin Church.
- latitudinous — having latitude, scope, range, breadth, etc., especially of ideas, interests, interpretations, or the like: a Renaissance man of latitudinous outlook.
- latus rectum — the chord perpendicular to the principal axis and passing through a focus of an ellipse, parabola, or hyperbola.
- laudableness — The quality of being laudable; praiseworthiness; commendableness.
- laue diagram — a diffraction pattern used to study crystal structure, consisting of symmetrically arranged spots obtained when a beam of x-rays, electrons, or neutrons is passed through a thin crystal and exposes a photographic plate.
- laughing gas — nitrous oxide.
- launch party — a party that celebrates the launch of a new magazine, product, etc
- launderettes — Plural form of launderette.
- laundry list — a lengthy, especially random list of items: a laundry list of hoped-for presents; a laundry list of someone's crimes.
- laundry mark — a symbol on a label on an article of clothing, bed-linen, etc, which specifies how the item should be washed and cared for, for example, at which temperature it should be washed at, whether it should be ironed, dry-cleaned, etc
- laundry room — utility room
- laundrywoman — laundress.
- laundrywomen — Plural form of laundrywoman.
- lauraldehyde — lauric aldehyde.
- laureateship — a person who has been honored for achieving distinction in a particular field or with a particular award: a Nobel laureate.
- lavender bag — a small fabric bag filled with dried lavender flowers and placed amongst clothes or linen to scent them
- law merchant — the principles and rules, drawn chiefly from custom, determining the rights and obligations of commercial transactions; commercial law.
- law of areas — any one of three laws governing planetary motion: each planet revolves in an ellipse, with the sun at one focus; the line connecting a planet to the sun sweeps out equal areas in equal periods of time (law of areas) or the square of the period of revolution of each planet is proportional to the cube of the semimajor axis of the planet's orbit (harmonic law)
- law of moses — the Pentateuch, containing the Mosaic dispensations, or system of rules and ordinances, and forming the first of the three Jewish divisions of the Old Testament.
- law of sines — a law stating that the ratio of a side of a plane triangle to the sine of the opposite angle is the same for all three sides.
- law-breaking — Law-breaking is any kind of illegal activity.
- lawbreakings — Plural form of lawbreaking.
- lawn bowling — a game played with wooden balls on a level, closely mowed green having a slight bias, the object being to roll one's ball as near as possible to a smaller white ball at the other end of the green. Also called bowls, bowling on the green. Compare bowl2 (def 2), bowling green, jack1 (def 7), rink (def 5).
- lawn sleeves — (used with a plural verb) the sleeves of lawn forming part of the dress of an Anglican bishop.
- lawrenceburg — a town in S Tennessee.
- lawyer's wig — the shaggy ink-cap
- lawyerliness — Quality of being lawyerly.
- laxadaisical — Misspelling of lackadaisical.
- laxativeness — the condition or quality of being laxative
- lay a course — to sail on a planned course without tacking
- lay claim to — to demand by or as by virtue of a right; demand as a right or as due: to claim an estate by inheritance.
- lay hands on — the terminal, prehensile part of the upper limb in humans and other primates, consisting of the wrist, metacarpal area, fingers, and thumb.
- lay preacher — a preacher who is not a member of the clergy
- lay siege to — attack
- lay sth bare — If you lay bare something or someone, you reveal or expose them.
- lay store by — to value or reckon as important