laager
South African encampment lager
beer Lady Blackstone, Jay, Thatcher
not Baroness laissez-faire
not italicised lamb's wool
lamp-post
lance-corporal
Land
state of Federal German Republic: use state, eg Hesse, the German state landmine
one word land registry
Land Rover
lang, kd
(Canadian singer-songwriter and lesbian icon) lc largesse
note final e La's
defunct Liverpool rock band; keep apostrophe (abbreviation for Lads) lasso
plural lassoes last post
law lords
lawsuit
layby
plural laybys lbw
leap year
left
lc for the left; leftwing (one word); leftwinger (one word); but on the left wing of the party; broad, soft, hard, old, cuddly left, all lc legal aid board
legionnaire's disease
lepers
Avoid: these days the term is regarded as inappropriate and stigmatising; prefer people affected by, people with, or people suffering from leprosy lese-majeste
less or fewer?
less means less in quantity, eg less money; fewer means smaller in number, eg fewer coins letdown, letup
leukaemia
level crossing
liaison
libretto
plural librettos licence noun, license verb lied singular, lieder plural lieutenant, lieutenant-colonel
abbreviate on second mention to Col: Lieutenant-Colonel Christopher Mackay, subsequently Col Mackay lifelong
one word light year
a measure of distance, not time like/as if
never use the former to mean the latter: "it looks as if he's finished" not "it looks like he's finished" like/such as
like excludes; such as includes: "Cities like Manchester are wonderful" suggests the writer has in mind, say, Sheffield or Birmingham; she actually means "cities such as Manchester"Do not be misled by Nevil Shute's A Town Like Alice: good title, but ungrammatical likely
takes the infinitive (he is likely to win) or a qualifier (he will very likely win), not "he will likely win" — if you want to use that form, say "he will probably win" lilliputian
liquefy
not liquify linchpin
not lynchpin lineup, lineout
Live TV
not L!ve TV Lloyds Bank
Lloyd's
of London; names lc Lloyd-Webber, Lord
but Andrew Lloyd Webber
Strange, but true loan
noun; the verb is to lend loathe detest; loth unwilling, not loath Lockerbie bombing
the two Libyan accused are Abdel Baset al-Megrahi and Al-Amin Khalifah Fhimah lockout
noun, lock out verb Londonderry
not Derry, except where Derry is part of the name of an institution or organisation, such as Derry city council or the IRA's Derry brigade London Eye
official name of the millennium wheel Long Island iced tea
longitude
eg 13 deg 17 min E looking-glass
lord chancellor
currently Lord Irvine of Lairg lord chief justice
currently Lord Bingham lord lieutenant
no hyphen; plural lords lieutenant Lords, House of Lords
but the house, not the House Lord's
cricket ground lordships, their
lottery, national lottery
lovable
not loveable loyalists
Northern Ireland lumpenproletariat
luvvies
a silly cliche; do not use luxury noun, luxurious adjective lying in state
no hyphens Lynyrd Skynyrd
US rock band Lyon
not Lyons
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