Word.ws English Dictionary

LIA

LIA is the initialism of Little Ice Age.

LIA is the initialism of lost in action.

Meaning of Little Ice Age

Proper noun

the Little Ice Age

  1. A period of cooling (not a true ice age) that followed the Medieval Warm Period and continued from about 1300 to about 1850.
    • The Little Ice Age that chilled Europe–variously dated from 1250 to 1900 or 1550 to 1850–should, according to past precedents, have snowballed into a full-blown ice age.2012, Lydia Pyne, Stephen J. Pyne, The Last Lost World, Penguin, →ISBN
    Synonyms:
    LIA

Meaning of lost in action

Adjective

lost in action (not comparable)

  1. (euphemistic) Killed during military combat.
    • Kouchner's comments came after another French marine was killed bringing to 29 the number of French forces lost in action.2009 August 7, John Metzler, “High stakes for democracy (and terrorism) as Afghans prepare to vote”, in World Tribune, US, retrieved 15 Sep 2010
  2. (usually, resources) Destroyed during military combat.
    • Summing up the furious October 22-27 battle in the longest Naval communique of the war, the department identified six American ships lost in action.1944 November 18, “Navy Lists Ships Lost in Battle of Philippines”, in Daytona Beach Morning Journal, retrieved 15 Sep 2010, page 1
  3. (broadly, figuratively, usually, things, policies) Rejected, nullified, incapacitated, or rendered unavailable.
    • The Bulls were definitely stung by the Hornets at the beginning of this first playoff game. Some Bulls were lost in action.1995 April 29, Rick Telander, “Jordan Does the Stinging”, in Chicago Sun-Times, retrieved 15 Sep 2010

Forms of LIA

Proper noun
alternative formL.I.A.
alternative formL. I. A.
Noun
pluralLIAs

Questions about LIA

What is LIA the initialism of?
LIA is the initialism of Little Ice Age.

Words near LIA in the dictionary

  1. Li-Lo
  2. Li-sanism
  3. Li-sanist
  4. Li-sanists
  5. Li-shui
  6. LIA
  7. Liab.
  8. Liabeuf
  9. liabilities
  10. liability
  11. liability insurance

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: LIA (page history and authors); Little Ice Age (page history and authors); lost in action (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “LIA.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/lia. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.