la

plural las · alternative lah

1. entertainmentA syllable used in solfège to represent the sixth note of a major scale.

   1 more example

   And now Mrs Waters (for we must confess she was in the same bed), being, I suppose, awakened from her sleep, and seeing two men fighting in her bedchamber, began to scream in the most violent manner, crying out murder! robbery! and more frequently rape! which last, some, perhaps, may wonder she should mention, who do not consider that these words of exclamation are used by ladies in a fright, as fa, la, la, ra, da, &c., are in music, only as the vehicles of sound, and without any fixed ideas.

   1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC

   1. entertainmentSometimes syllable for both the third and the sixth.

1. Represents the sound of music or singing.

   "La la la la, I can't hear you!" Jimmy said, sticking his fingers in his ears.

   1 more example

   The only part Lucy had to sing was the interlude, which was a bunch of la la la's, and the last verse of the song, which was only four lines, and the chorus, which was just as short.

   2019, Keira Brown, Between the Lines: Never in Plain Sight

alternative law

1. obsoleteUsed to introduce a statement with emphatic or intensive effect.
2. archaicExpressing surprise, anger. etc.

   "La, William, don't be so highty-tighty with us. We're not men. We can't fight you," Miss Jane said.

   1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, →OCLC

   2 more examples

   La, ma'am, what doth your la'ship think? the girl that your la'ship saw at church on Sunday, whom you thought so handsome; though you would not have thought her so handsome neither, if you had seen her nearer, but to be sure she hath been carried before the justice for being big with child.

   1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC

   “Oh, la! here come the Richardsons. I had a vast deal more to say to you, but I must not stay away from them any longer.”

   1811, [Jane Austen], chapter 2, in Sense and Sensibility […], volume III, London: […] C[harles] Roworth, […], and published by T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC

1. ironicnot comparableoftenPrefixed to the name of a woman, with ironic effect (as though an opera prima donna).

   By judicious leaking, he also managed to make la Kirkpatrick and her associates look rather unsavory.

   2010, Christopher Hitchens, Hitch-22, Atlantic, published 2011, page 232

   2 more examples

   Following lukewarm on the heels of an article a few weeks ago, where (I paraphrase due to having filed the relevant copy in the recycling bin) Victoria Beckham made a "well-meaning" remark that the other Spice Girls might want to lose a few pounds, we now have a new incidence of La Beckham's scintillating and entirely well-meaning humour.

   2007 November 22, Kate Carter, “Graziawatch”, in The Guardian

   (You have to wonder where la Wintour finds the time for all this styling: maybe it's a displacement activity to fill the void left by her failure to get the Democratic party into power?)

   2025 June 21, Jo Ellison, “The Bezos merger we all want a piece of”, in FT Weekend (Life & Arts section), London: The Financial Times Ltd., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 22

plural las

1. Liverpoollad, kid

plural las

1. abbreviationAbbreviation of lane

1. Hong KongcolloquialPlaced at the end of a sentence in imperatives making it sound more like a request than an order.

   Sleep la!

   [You should] go to bed.

   1 more example

   Eat shit la you!

   You're going to hell! (calque of 食屎啦你！)

2. Hong KongcolloquialUsed to tone down comments.

   ok la

   not bad; good enough

1. Hong KongManglishSinglishalternativecolloquialAlternative form of lah.

plural LAs

1. abbreviationinitialismanatomyInitialism of left atrium.
2. abbreviationinitialismchemistryInitialism of lead arsenate.
3. abbreviationinitialismmedicineInitialism of local anesthetic.
4. abbreviationinitialismInitialism of lateral area.
5. abbreviationinitialismInitialism of local authority.

1. abbreviationinitialismInitialism of Los Angeles: a city in California, United States.

   Speaking as an LA native, this is the longest earthquake I’ve ever felt!

   2005 May 1, Robert Lamoreaux, Michelle Lamoreaux, Nicole Demerse, Jef Biederman, Richard Clark, “Evil Promotion Much?”, in Totally Spies!: Undercover, season 3, episode 24, spoken by Clover (Andrea Baker), Marathon Media, via Teletoon

   1 more example

   LA is the loneliest and most brutal of American cities; New York gets god-awful cold in the winter but there’s a feeling of wacky comradeship somewhere in some streets. LA is a jungle.

   1957 September 5, Jack Kerouac, chapter 13, in On the Road, London: Penguin Books, published 1976, →ISBN, part 1, page 86

2. abbreviationAbbreviation of Louisiana: a state of the United States.
3. abbreviationAbbreviation of Ladakh: a union territory of India.
4. abbreviationhumorousAbbreviation of Lower Arkansas, also in reference to the state of Louisiana.
5. abbreviationAbbreviation of Lampung: a province of Indonesia.
6. abbreviationinitialismInitialism of Las Anod: a city in Somalia.
7. abbreviationinitialismInitialism of Linear A.

plural Las

1. alternativecountableuncountableAlternative form of LA.

1. abbreviationAbbreviation of lane (in street addresses).

1. A surname