| Words beginning with "L" |
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Laboratory. Laboratory ... but only if you pronounce it la-BOR-a-tory. When I was boy in Pittsburgh, my father would occasionally get me up late on a Saturday night to watch "Chiller Theatre," a late-night horror movie program hosted by Bill "Chilly Billy" Cardille. My favorites were the Universal horror films from the '30s and '40s -- Frankenstein, The Mummy, The Invisible Man, etc. There was an otherworldliness to these films, enhanced by all those black & white people speaking in British and German accents. I remember turning to my father during a commercial break in one film (Bride of Frankenstein?) and saying, "I like films where they say, 'laBORatory.'" Maybe these films are the reason I've performed in haunted houses at Halloween for much of my adult life. But not as any ordinary ghoul, of course. I perform in a tux with a cultivated, pseudo-British accent. The Universal influence lives on. Jim Waldfogle
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Lackadaisical. My favorite word is lackadaisical -- a word that is lovely in sound and rhythm, yet in meaning is apparently akin to OME "Lack-a-Day," usually with an exclamation point at the end -- meaning "affectedly pensive or melancholy" -- despondency to the extent of being noteworthy. My dear spouse uses this word frequently when speaking of co-workers, only malaprops it into "Totally lacking of daisies," a happy cheerful flower -- and the mental concept matches adroitly. Oooh - Adroit! Now there's a word! Rita
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| Lanquid. I really enjoy words that, when spoken, both sound like what they mean and make you feel like what they mean at the same time. For those reasons, languid is a favorite word of mine. Emily
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Liberty. My favorite word is liberty. Liberty encompasses so much that should be in everyone's life ... freedom to believe Joan Schmidt
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| Lilac. My favourite word is lilac because of their sweet smell, and my favourite book is centered around the stealing of lilac bushes (Nancy Drew #4). Alexis
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Limpid. Pronunciation of the word matches its definition - very soothing. Word Fan
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Liquid. When pronouncing the word, it sounds as fluid as its definition. Word Fan
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Listlessness. Love the way it sounds and how the syllables slowly roll off the tongue ... not your conventional onomatopoeic word ... but still conveys its meaning beautifully. Beverly Shemaine Pereira
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| Lithic. Right now my favorite word is "lithic," an adjective meaning "of stone." The word itself sounds solid and permanent, like stone, and the "ic" at the end reminds me of the sound of two rocks clanking together. John Roby
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Love and Friends. I love both these words because without either of them in your life, life would not be worth living. Margaret
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Ludicrous. My favorite word is "ludicrous" because first of all, there is a lot in life that is absolutely ludicrous, so it's a very useful word. I think I also like it because it's a great alternative to overused words like "ridiculous," or the nauseatingly ubiquitous "stupid." Finally I like it because it has a Latin root, and all truly cool words come from Latin. The Latin root means game, sport, joke, or the most entertaining use for ludus: school. Now that's ludicrous. Molly
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| Lugubrious. Just for the way it rolls off the tongue and its redolence of lumbering, dolorous, narcissist pathos. Jim
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| Luminescent. One of my favorite words is luminescent, well, all the related words really: luminous, luminosity, luminesce… Not only do they feel wonderful to say, the word itself seems to glow. I also love the duality of the word. As a scientist who started out as a die-hard liberal arts/literary person I love that luminescent is both a scientific term, as well as a wonderfully descriptive literary word. I am as likely to see it in a novel as in a science book. It’s a word that fits my dual nature! Holly Riester
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Lumpen. I read a story in The New Yorker about Ricky Jay, a magician, who mentioned that he was sometimes perturbed by the "magic lumpen." I was mystified by this word. What did it mean? Was it some sort of magic wand? My own dictionaries did not contain this word but I finally discovered the meaning in an unabridged dictionary. I have since used the word lumpen to determine the completeness of a dictionary which might boast of hundreds of thousands of words. If lumpen isn't contained within the dictionary pages, I'm not interested. LUM·PEN Randy Thayer
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Luscious. You get the meaning of this word by just saying it. Say it slowly and you give your tongue and mouth a workout. By saying it you make your mouth water with expectation. It's a word you can almost taste Alan Pert
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