12-letter words starting with l
- leonine city — a district of Rome on the right bank of the Tiber fortified by Pope Leo IV
- leontopodium — any plant of the Eurasian alpine genus Leontopodium, esp L. alpinum
- leopard frog — a common North American green frog, Rana pipiens, having white-edged, dark oval spots on its back.
- leopard lily — a tall lily, Lilium pardalinum, of California, having drooping, orange-red flowers with purple speckles, a yellow base, and recurved petal tips.
- leopard moth — a moth, Zeuzera pyrina, having white wings spotted with black and larvae that bore into the wood of various trees and shrubs.
- leopard seal — a yellowish-gray, spotted seal, Hydrurga leptonyx, of the Antarctic.
- leopardesses — Plural form of leopardess.
- leopoldville — former name of Kinshasa.
- lepenski vir — the site of an advanced Mesolithic fishing culture on the banks of the Danube in Serbia, characterized by trapezoidal buildings and large stone sculptures of human heads and torsos.
- leper colony — a place where people who have leprosy live in quarantine
- lepidomelane — (mineralogy) A black iron-potash mica, usually found in granitic rocks in small six-sided tables, or as an aggregation of minute opaque scales.
- lepidopteran — lepidopterous.
- lepidopteron — any lepidopterous insect.
- lepidosirens — Plural form of lepidosiren.
- leprosariums — Plural form of leprosarium.
- leptocephali — Plural form of leptocephalus.
- leptosomatic — a person of asthenic build.
- leptospermum — any of various shrubs or trees of the genus Leptospermum, of the myrtle family, native to Australia and adjacent areas and often cultivated as ornamentals in milder climates.
- lese majesty — Law. a crime, especially high treason, committed against the sovereign power. an offense that violates the dignity of a ruler.
- lèse-majesté — a crime against the sovereign; offense against a ruler's dignity as head of the state; treason
- lese-majesty — Law. a crime, especially high treason, committed against the sovereign power. an offense that violates the dignity of a ruler.
- lesser ionic — Prosody. an Ionic foot, verse, or meter.
- lesser panda — panda (def 2).
- lesser scaup — a diving duck, Aythya marila, of Europe and America, having a black-and-white plumage in the male
- lesser-known — less widely known; less famous
- let floating — (programming) A program transformation used in functional programming to implement full laziness. E.g. the function f x = x + sqrt 4 can be expressed as f x = let t = sqrt 4 in x + t but note that t does not depend on the argument x so we can automatically transform this to t = sqrt 4 f x = x + t Making t into a global constant which need only be evaluated at most once, rather than every time f is called. The general idea is to float each subexpression as far out (toward the top level) as possible to maximise sharing.
- let fly (at) — to shoot or throw (at)
- let sth rest — If someone refuses to let a subject rest, they refuse to stop talking about it, especially after they have been talking about it for a long time.
- lethargizing — Present participle of lethargize.
- letter paper — paper used for writing letters or communications
- letter stock — unregistered stock sold privately by a company so as not to have a negative effect on the price of its publicly traded stock.
- letterboxing — Also, letter box. Chiefly British. a public or private mailbox.
- letters page — the page in a newspaper or magazine containing letters sent to the editor by readers
- leucocytosis — an increase in the number of white blood cells in the blood.
- leucopoiesis — the formation and development of white blood cells.
- leukocytosis — an increase in the number of white blood cells in the blood.
- leukopedesis — an outward flow of white blood cells through a blood-vessel wall.
- leukopoiesis — the formation and development of white blood cells.
- leukotrienes — Plural form of leukotriene.
- levalloisian — of, relating to, or characteristic of a distinctive late Lower and Middle Paleolithic method of preparing a stone core so that preformed thin, oval or triangular flakes with sharp edges could be struck from it.
- level-headed — having common sense and sound judgment; sensible.
- leveling rod — rod (def 19).
- lever-action — (of a rifle) having a lever action.
- levi strauss — David Friedrich [dah-veet free-drikh] /ˈdɑ vit ˈfri drɪx/ (Show IPA), 1808–74, German theologian, philosopher, and author.
- levi-strauss — Claude, 1908–2009, French anthropologist and educator, born in Belgium: founder of structural anthropology.
- levitational — Relating to levitation.
- levorotation — Rotation in an anticlockwise direction, especially such rotation of the plane of polarized light.
- levorotatory — turning to the left, as the rotation to the left of the plane of polarization of light in certain crystals and compounds. Symbol: l-.
- lex talionis — the principle or law of retaliation that a punishment inflicted should correspond in degree and kind to the offense of the wrongdoer, as an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth; retributive justice.
- lexicography — the writing, editing, or compiling of dictionaries.