Acceptable abbreviation for liter(s). Include a space between the number and l. For information about when it’s OK to use the abbreviation, see “Units of Measure.”
Word List
The Yahoo! Word List
The Yahoo! word list covers terms related to communications, technology, branding, and other topics that our U.S. editors have encountered frequently. Following is a healthy sampling of the full Yahoo! word list. (We update the online list quarterly—see what’s new.)
These are the decisions that Yahoo! has come to after years of writing and editing for the Web. You may naturally make different choices and have different entries, but our word list can be useful as a springboard or as an additional reference.
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l
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L.A.
Abbreviation for Los Angeles. Note periods (to avoid confusion with the postal abbreviation for Louisiana). Use only when space is tight.
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LAN
Acronym for local area network. Acronym OK to use after initial explanation.
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Latino, Latina (n., adj.)
Generally preferred to Hispanic. Latino refers to men; Latina refers to women. Plural: Latinos, Latinas. When possible, be more specific: Colombian, Mexican American, Puerto Rican.
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lay up (n.), layup (n.)
Two words when referring to a golf shot. One word when referring to a basketball shot.
Updated on October 22, 2010 -
layperson
Use this term instead of layman.
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lb.
Acceptable abbreviation for pound(s). Note period. Include a space between the number and lb. For information about when it’s OK to use the abbreviation, see “Units of Measure.”
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LCD
Acronym for liquid-crystal display. Acronym is always OK. Plural: LCDs.
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learned, learnt
The preferred U.S. spelling is learned. Learnt is chiefly British and is considered a variant of learned in the United States.
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LED
Acronym for light-emitting diode. Acronym is always OK. Plural: LEDs.
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left-hand side
Don’t use. Use left side instead. -
LGBT
Acronym for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender. Acronym OK to use after an explanation. [Updated to change transgendered to transgender.]
Updated on January 21, 2011 -
Li-ion
Acceptable abbreviation for lithium-ion, a type of battery. Note capital L.
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like (v.)
Enclose like in quotation marks when referring to the action of indicating approval on a social-networking site such as Facebook. Example: Thousands of people have “liked” us on Facebook, helping to raise funds for Stand Up to Cancer. Treat the term as you would a user-interface element (a button or link, for example) when the reference is to the UI element itself. We prefer to use boldface to make UI elements stand out in text. Example: Visit us on Facebook and click Like, and you could win a prize.
Added on October 22, 2010 -
lineup (n.), line up (v.)
One word when used as a noun. Two words when used as a verb.
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Linux
Note capitalization of this trademark owned by Linus Torvalds. Not LINUX.
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liter
An acceptable abbreviation for liter(s) is l (no period).
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lithium-ion (n., adj.)
Lowercase the written-out form of this type of battery.
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live-blog, live-blogging
Note hyphen.
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login (n., adj.); log in, log in to (v.)
One word when used as a noun or an adjective. Two words when used as a verb, which may be followed by the preposition to. Note that sign in is preferred because it sounds less technical.
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logoff (n., adj.), log off (v.)
One word when used as a noun or adjective. Two words when used as a verb. Note that sign out is preferred because it sounds less technical.
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logon (n., adj.); log on, log on to (v.)
One word when used as a noun or adjective. Two words when used as a verb, which may be followed by the preposition to. Note that sign in is preferred because it sounds less technical. Don’t use log on to mean simply visiting a website.
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logout (n., adj.), log out (v.)
One word when used as a noun or adjective. Two words when used as a verb. Note that sign out is preferred because it sounds less technical. Example: If you forget to log out, you’ll get a logout reminder.
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lookup (n., adj.), look up (v.)
One word when used as a noun or adjective: Have you tried a reverse phone number lookup? Two words when used as a verb: I tried to look up her phone number.
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low-fat (adj.)
Note hyphen.
Build your own word list
A word list is an important part of a site’s style guide. It tracks your decisions, helps you enforce them to maintain your site’s voice and editorial standards, and keeps editors from having to make the same kinds of decisions over and over again—possibly coming to contradictory conclusions each time.
Build your own word list
