This list contains acronyms, initialisms, and pseudo-blends that begin with the letter L.
For the purposes of this list:
- acronym = an abbreviation pronounced as if it were a word, e.g., SARS = severe acute respiratory syndrome, pronounced to rhyme with cars
- initialism = an abbreviation pronounced wholly or partly using the names of its constituent letters, e.g., CD = compact disc, pronounced cee dee
- pseudo-blend = an abbreviation whose extra or omitted letters mean that it cannot stand as a true acronym, initialism, or portmanteau (a word formed by combining two or more words).
- (a) = acronym, e.g.: SARS – (a) severe acute respiratory syndrome
- (i) = initialism, e.g.: CD – (i) compact disc
- (p) = pseudo-blend, e.g.: UNIFEM – (p) United Nations Development Fund for Women
- (s) = symbol (none of the above, representing and pronounced as something else; for example: MHz – megahertz)
Some terms are spoken as either acronym or initialism, e.g., VoIP, pronounced both as voyp and V-O-I-P.
LA edit
- l8r, g8r – (a) later, gator
- la – (s) Latin language (ISO 639-1 code)
- La – (s) Lanthanum
- LA
- (s) Laos (FIPS 10-4 country code; ISO 3166 digram)
- Louisiana (postal symbol)
- (i) Los Angeles
- LAAS
- LAB – (a) Logistics Assault Base
- LabVIEW – (p) Laboratory Virtual Instrumentation Engineering Workbench
- LACMA – (a/i) Los Angeles County Museum of Art
- LAD – (a) Laser Aiming Device
- LADW – (i) Local Air Defence Warning
- LAESI – (i) Local Authority & Emergency Service Information
- LAK – (s) Laotian kip (ISO 4217 currency code)
- LAMP – (multiple meanings)
- LAN – (a) Local Area Network
- LANL – (i) Los Alamos National Laboratory
- lao – (s) Lao language (ISO 639-2 code)
- LAO – (s) Laos (ISO 3166 trigram)
- LAPD – (i) Los Angeles Police Department
- LAR
- Light Armoured Reconnaissance
- Logistics Assistance Representative
- LARC – (a) Livermore Advanced Research Computer (cf. LLNL)
- LARP – (a) Live-Action Role-Playing
- LAS – (s) McCarran International Airport (Las Vegas, Nevada)
- Laser – (a) Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation (cf. Maser)
- lat – (s) Latin language (ISO 639-2 code)
- LAT
- (i/a) Lowest Astronomical Tide (nautical charts)
- Licensed Athletic Trainer (used in many of the United States; see www.oata.org)
- LATA – (i) Local Access Transport Area
- LATCH – (p) Lower Anchors and Tethers for Children (U.S. standard for attachment points for child safety seats in passenger cars)
- lav – (s) Latvian language (ISO 639-2 code)
- LAV
- LAW] – (a) Light Antitank Weapon
- LAX
- (s) Los Angeles International Airport
- (i) The Latin American Xchange (professional wrestling)
LB edit
- lb
- (s) pound (Latin librum)
- Luxembourgish language (ISO 639-1 code)
- LB – (s) Lebanon (ISO 3166 digram)
- LBH
- (i) Light Battlefield Helicopter
- Lyman-Birge-Hopfield bands
- LBJ
- (i) Lady Bird Johnson
- LeBron James
- Light Bulb Joke
- Little Beagle Johnson (the dog owned by Lyndon and Lady Bird Johnson)
- Lyndon Baines Johnson
- LBN – (s) Lebanon (ISO 3166 trigram)
- LBNL – (i) Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
- LBP – (s) Lebanese pound (ISO 4217 currency code)
- LBR – (s) Liberia (ISO 3166 trigram)
- LBS – (i) Location-based service
- lbs – (s) pounds (plural form of lb, see above)
- LBT – (i) Large Binocular Telescope
- LBW – (i) Leg Before Wicket
- LBY – (s) Libya (ISO 3166 trigram)
LC edit
- LC – (i) Line of Contact – (s) Saint Lucia (ISO 3166 digram)
- LC2IEDM or LC2IEDM – (i) Land C2IEDM (q.v.)
- LCA
- (s) Saint Lucia (ISO 3166 trigram)
- Larnaca International Airport
- LCC – (i) Land Component Commander
- LCCP – (i) Light Contingency Communications Package
- LCD – (i) Liquid Crystal Display
- LCE – (i) Leaving Certificate Examination – Load Carrying Equipment – London Commodity Exchange
- LCM – (i) Least/Lowest Common Multiple
- LCol – (s) Lieutenant-Colonel (Canada, UK)
- LCS - League of Legends Championship Series
LD edit
- LD
- (i) Laser Designator
- Limited Deployment
- Line of Departure
- LDA – (i) Lateral Drift Apparatus (paratroops)
- LDAP – (a/i) Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (pronounced "ell-dap")
- LDC – (i) Lesser Developing/Developed Country
- LDE - (s) Tarbes–Lourdes–Pyrénées Airport (IATA code)
- LDL – (i) Low-Density Lipoprotein
- LDMOS – (i/a) Laterally diffused MOS transistor ("ell-dee-moss")
- LDS
- (i) Latter-day Saint (also "Latter Day Saint"); also used as an abbreviation by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
- Liberal Democracy of Slovenia
- LDV – (i) Local Defence Volunteers (British Home Guard)
- LDW – Lane Departure Warning (ADAS)
LE edit
- LE – (s) Lebanon (FIPS 10-4 country code)
- LEC – (i) Local Exchange Carrier
- LED – (i) Light-Emitting Diode
- Legs – (a) level emotion gad speed
- LEGAD – (p) Legal Advice
- LEMOSS – (p) Long-Endurance MObile Submarine Simulator
- LEN – (i) Large Extension Node
- LEO – (a) Low Earth orbit
- LEP – (a) Large Electron-Positron collider
- LER – (i) Loss-Exchange Ratio
- LEU – (i) Low-Enriched Uranium
LF edit
- LF – (i) Low Frequency
- LFG - Let's F***ing Go! (Internet slang)
- LFO – (i) Low Frequency Oscillation / Oscillator
- LFTR – (i) Liquid fluoride thorium reactor
LG edit
- lg – (s) Luganda (ISO 639-1 code)
- LG – (s) Latvia (FIPS 10-4 country code)
- LGB
- (i) Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual
- Laser-guided bomb, self-explanatory
- LGBT – (i) Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender
- LGLO – (i) Love God, Love Others
- LGLO's – (i) Latino Greek Lettered Organizations
- LGM
- (i) Little Green Men
- (s) Land-based Guided Missile, US military designation for guided missiles launched from ground silos, mostly used to talk about ICBMs like LGM-30 Minuteman
- LGS – (i) Landsat Ground Station
LH edit
- LH
- (s) Lithuania (FIPS 10-4 country code)
- (i) Luteinising Hormone
- Lufthansa (IATA airline code)
- LHC – (i) Large Hadron Collider
- LHD
- (i) litterarum humaniorum doctor (Latin, "doctor of humane letters (humanities)")
- Left-Hand Drive (automobile)
- (s) Landing Helicopter Dock (US Navy hull classification symbol)
- LHS – (i) Left Hand Side
LI edit
- li – (s) Limburgish language (ISO 639-1 code)
- Li – (s) Lithium
- LI – (s) Fifty-one (in Roman numerals) – (s) Liberia (FIPS 10-4 country code) – Liechtenstein (ISO 3166 digram)
- Libor – (p) London Interbank Offered Rate
- LIBS – (a) Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy
- LIE – (s) Liechtenstein (ISO 3166 trigram)
- LIFO – (a) Last In, First Out
- LIGO – (a) Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory
- LIJ – (i) Los Ingobernables de Japón (Spanish, "The Ungovernables of Japan"), Japanese professional wrestling stable
- lim – (s) Limburgish language (ISO 639-2 code)
- lin – (s) Lingala language (ISO 639-2 code)
- LINEAR – (a) Lincoln Near-Earth Asteroid Research
- LiP, LIP – (s) Lithium ion polymer battery
- LISA – (a) Laser Interferometer Space Antenna
- lit – (s) Lithuanian language (ISO 639-2 code)
- LITAS – (a) Low Intensity Two Colour Approach System (aviation)
- LIVE – (a) Liquid Inertial Vibration Eliminator
LJ edit
- LJ
- (i) La Jolla
- Larry Johnson (both the American football and basketball players of that name)
- LaserJet (HP printer brand)
- Library Journal
- Linux Journal
- LiveJournal
- Ljubljana
- Lord Justice of Appeal
- (s) Sierra National Airlines (IATA code)
- LJJ – (i) Lord Justices of Appeal
LK edit
LL edit
- l. l. – loco laudato (Latin: "in the place quoted")
- LL
- (i) Land Line (telephone)
- (i) Last Log
- (i) Late Latin
- (s) Laws, esp. both Laws
- (i) Left Limit
- (i) Lex Luthor (Superman character)
- (i) Light Line
- (i) Limited Liability
- (s) Lines** (i) Linked List
- (i) Little League
- (i) Low Latin
- (p) Liberland
- LLAD – (i) Low Level Air Defence
- LLB – (i) Legum Baccalaureus (Latin: Bachelor of Laws)
- LLC – (i) Limited Liability Company
- LLGC – (i) Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru (National Library of Wales) – London Lesbian and Gay Centre
- LLLTV – (i) Low-Light Level Television
- LLNL – (i) Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
- LLP – (i) Limited Liability Partnership
- LLTI – (i) Limiting Long-Term Illness – Long Lead Time Item
- LLTR – (i) Low-Level Transit Route
LM edit
- LMAO – (i) Laughing My Ass Off (Internet shorthand)
- LMFAO – (i) Laughing My F**king Ass Off (Internet shorthand, electro-hop duo)
- LMB – (i) Lick My Balls
- LMN – (a/i) Lifetime Movie Network
- LMS – (i) London Mathematical Society – London, Midland and Scottish (Railway)
- LMS – (i) Like My Status (Internet shorthand)
- LMV - () Light Motor Vehicle
LN edit
- ln
- (s) Lingala language (ISO 639-1 code)
- Natural logarithm
- LNB
- (i) Liga Nacional de Básquet (Rioplatense Spanish, "National Basketball League"; top Argentine league)
- Ligue Nationale de Basketball (French, "National Basketball League"; the organization that operates France's top two leagues, and the unrelated top league of Switzerland)
- Low-Noise Block (Satellite dish)
- LNER
- (i) London and North Eastern Railway railway operator from 1923 until 1947 in the United Kingdom
- (i) London North Eastern Railway railway operator established in 2018 in the United Kingdom
- LNG – (i) Liquefied Natural Gas
- LNO – (p) Liaison Officer
- LNR – (i) Ligue Nationale de Rugby (French, "National Rugby League")
LO edit
- lo – (s) Lao language (ISO 639-1 code)
- LO – (s) Slovakia (FIPS 10-4 country code)
- LOA – (i) Limit Of Advance
- LOC
- (a/i) Level of Operational Capability
- Limited Operational Capability
- Lines Of Code
- Lines Of Communication
- see entry
- LOD
- (i) Legion of Doom, referring to any of the following:
- A group of DC Comics supervillains
- A hacker group
- A group of Philadelphia Flyers ice hockey players in the 1990s
- The Road Warriors, a professional wrestling tag team that used the name "Legion of Doom" when performing in the WWF/WWE
- Limit of Detection – see Detection limit
- (i) Legion of Doom, referring to any of the following:
- LoD – (i) Lines of Development (UK)
- LOFAR – (p) Low Frequency Analyzer and Recorder / Low Frequency Analysis and Recording in sonar systems
- LOGPAC – (p) Logistics Package
- LOL – (i) Laughing Out Loud (Internet shorthand)
- LOMEZ – (p) Low Altitude Missile Engagement Zone
- LONEOS – (a) Lowell Observatory Near-Earth-Object Search
- LOOGY – (p/a) Lefty One-Out GuY, a sometimes pejorative nickname for the left-handed specialist in baseball
- loq – (p) loquitur (Latin, "(s) he speaks")
- LORTID – (p) LOng Range Target IDentification
- LOS – (i) Line Of Sight
- LOSAT – (i) Line-Of-Sight Anti-Tank (missile)
- LOTA – (i) Licentiate of the Orthodontic Technicians Association
- LOTIS – (a) Livermore Optical Transient Imaging System
- LOTR or LotR – (a) Lord of the Rings
- LOTS – (a) Logistics Over-The-Shore
LP edit
- LP
- (i) Linkin Park
- Linkup Point
- Listening Post
- Long Playing (record)
- Louisiana Pacific (cf. LP Field, a former name of the sports venue now known as Nissan Stadium)
- LPC – (i) Linear Predictive Coding
- LPD
- (i) Landing Platform Dock (Navy hull classification)
- Low Probability of Detection
- LPG – (i) Liquefied Petroleum Gas (cf. LNG)
- LPI – (i) Low Probability of Intercept
- LPS
- (i) Landsat Processing System
- (p) LipoPolySaccharide
LQ edit
- LQ – (s) Palmyra Atoll (FIPS 10-4 territory code)
LR edit
- Lr – (s) Lawrencium
- LR – (s) Liberia (ISO 3166 digram)
- LRAD – (i) Long Range Acoustic Device ("ell-rad")
- LRAS3 or LRAS3 – (i) Long Range Advanced Scout Surveillance System
- LR-ATGW – (i) Long-Range Anti-Tank Guided Weapon
- LRC – (i) Logistics Readiness Center
- LRD – (s) Liberian dollar (ISO 4217 currency code)
- LRF – (p) Laser rangefinder – (i) Low Readiness Forces
- LRGW – (i) Long-Range Guided Weapon
- LRICBM – (i) Limited Range ICBM
- LRIP – (i) Low Rate Initial Production
- LRP – (i) Logistics Release Point
- LRPE – (i) Long-Range Planning Element
- LRS – (i) Long Range Surveillance
- LRU – (i) Line-Replaceable Unit
LS edit
- L.S. – (i) Lectori Salutem (Latin, "greetings to the reader"; when the name of the reader is not known in advance)
- LS
- (i) Landing Support
- (s) Lesotho (ISO 3166 digram)
- Liechtenstein (FIPS 10-4 country code)
- (i) locus sigilli (Latin, "place of the seal")
- LSAT – (i) Law School Admission Test (often pronounced as "el-SAT")
- LSD
- (i) Landing Ship, Dock (Navy hull classification)
- librae, solidii, denarii (Latin: Pounds, shillings and pence)
- lyserg-saüre-dietylamid (German "lysergic acid diethylamide")
- LSE
- LSI – (i) Large-Scale Integration
- LSIF – (i) Labour Sponsored Investment Fund
- LSL – (s) Lesotho loti (ISO 4217 currency code)
- LSND – (i) Liquid Scintillator Neutrino Detector
- LSO – (s) Lesotho (ISO 3166 trigram)
- LSST – (i) Large Synoptic Survey Telescope
- LST – (i) Landing Ship, Tank (World War II; also known, not entirely affectionately, as "Large Slow Target")
- LSVW – (i) Light Support Vehicle, Wheeled
LT edit
- lt – (s) Lithuanian language (ISO 639-1 code)
- Lt – (s) Lieutenant
- LtC – (s) Lieutenant-Colonel (U.S.)
- LT – (s) Lesotho (FIPS 10-4 country code) – Lithuania (ISO 3166 digram)
- LTC – (i) Long-Term Costing
- Ltd – (s) Limited
- LTDP – (i) Long-Term Defence Plan
- LTG – (s) Lieutenant General – (i) Lightning (METAR Code)
- LTI – (i) Linear Time-Invariant
- LTL – (s) Lithuanian litas (ISO 4217 currency code)
- LTM – (i) Acronym for Laughing To Myself
- LTO - (i) Long Term Occasional (substitute teachers)
- LTP – (i) Long-Term Potentiation
- LTU – (s) Lithuania (ISO 3166 trigram)
- ltz – (s) Luxembourgish language (ISO 639-2 code)
LU edit
- lu – (s) Tshiluba language (ISO 639-1 code)
- Lu – (s) Lutetium
- LU
- (i) Lefèvre Utile, a French brand of biscuits/cookies
- Loonatics Unleashed
- Love You
- lub – (s) Tshiluba language (ISO 639-2 code)
- LUCA – (a) Last Universal Common Ancestor
- lug – (s) Luganda (ISO 639-2 code)
- LUG – (i) Linux User Group
- LULU – (a) Locally Unwanted Land Use (urbanism)
- LUT – (i) Limited User Test (ing) – Local User Terminal
- LUVW – (i) Light Utility Vehicle, Wheeled
- LUX – (s) Luxembourg (ISO 3166 trigram)
LV edit
- lv – (s) Latvian language (ISO 639-1 code)
- LV
- (i) Las Vegas
- (s) Latvia (ISO 3166 digram)
- (i) Launch Vehicle
- Leading Vehicle
- (s) Leave
- (i) Left Ventricle
- Level Valve
- Linking Verb
- Liverpool Victoria
- LVA – (s) Latvia (ISO 3166 trigram)
- LVAD
- LVEF – (i) Left Ventricular Ejection Fraction
- LVL – (s) Latvian lats (ISO 4217 currency code)
LW edit
- Lw – (s) Lawrencium (obsolete 1963)
- LW
- (i) Land Warrior
- Low Water (nautical charts)
- LWO - (i) Latino World Order (professional wrestling stable from WWE
- LWR
- (i) Laser warning receiver
- Light-water reactor (type of nuclear reactor)
- LWRC – (i) Land Warfare Resources Corporation
- LWS – (i) Land Warrior System
LX edit
- LX – (s) Luxembourg (amateur radio ITU prefix) – Swiss International Air Lines (IATA code)
- LX – (p) Electrics (theatrical term)
LY edit
- LY – (s) Libya (FIPS 10-4 country code; ISO 3166 digram) – Lithuania (amateur radio ITU prefix)
- LYAO – Laugh Your Ass Off
- LYD – (s) Libyan dinar (ISO 4217 currency code)
- LYLAS – (a) Love You Like A Sister
LZ edit
- LZ – (s) Bulgaria (amateur radio ITU prefix) – (i) Landing Zone
References edit
- ^ William L. Maurice, Marjorie A. Bowman, Sexual medicine in primary care, Mosby Year Book, 1999, ISBN 978-0-8151-2797-0
- ^ Aragon, Angela Pattatuchi (2006). Challenging Lesbian Norms: Intersex, Transgender, Intersectional, and Queer Perspectives. Haworth Press. ISBN 978-1-56023-645-0. Retrieved 2008-07-05.
- ^ The Santa Cruz County in-queery, Volume 9, Santa Cruz Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgendered Community Center, 1996. 2008-11-01. Retrieved 2011-10-23. page 690
- ^ "Civilities, What does the acronym LGBTQ stand for?". Washington Post. Retrieved February 19, 2018.