L may refer to any of the following:
L is a keyboard key used with the keyboard shortcuts Alt+L, Command+L, and Ctrl+L.
With Microsoft Excel and other spreadsheet programs, “L” is the twelfth column of a spreadsheet. To reference the first cell in the column, you’d use “L1.”
In a regular expression, a lowercase “\l” lowercases the first letter in a match, and an uppercase “\L” lowercases all letters matched.
In Adobe Photoshop, L is a shortcut to select lasso tools. Holding down the Shift while pressing L cycles through all lasso options.
In chat and online gaming, an “L” indicates a loss or someone is a loser. You can think of the “L” as a digital version of someone making an L-shape with their fingers on their forehead in real life. The opposite would be “W” for a “win.”
In the phonetic alphabet, “L” is often pronounced as “lima.”
L is the twelfth letter of the English alphabet. The letter “L” comes after “K” and is followed by the letter “M.” To create a capitalized “L,” press Shift and L at the same time.
With U.S. QWERTY keyboards, the “L” key is on the home row, to the right of the “K” and left of the “;” (semicolon) key. See our keyboard page for a visual example of all keyboard keys.
BG, Chat terms, Computer abbreviations, Game terms, Letter
If the “L” key is not working on the keyboard, see: Some keys on my computer keyboard aren’t working.
In ASCII, the uppercase “L” is “076” in decimal (01001100 in binary). The lowercase “l” is “108” in decimal (01101100 in binary).
Doing the Alt code Alt+76 creates a capital “L” and Alt+108 creates a lowercase “l” character.
The number 5 on a phone keypad is used to create an “L” on a US phone.
Related information
- See our L terms for a full listing of computer terms starting with “L.”
- Computer people and pioneers with “L” first names.
