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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

forlorn.

Abandoned, deserted, left behind.

7 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

adj/fəˈlɔːn/Received-Pronunciation/fɔːˈlɔːn/Received-Pronunciation/fɚˈlɔɹn/General-American/fɔɹˈlɔɹn/General-American

  1. Abandoned, deserted, left behind.

  2. Pitifully sad, wretched, miserable; lonely, especially from feeling abandoned, deserted, forsaken.

  3. Unlikely to succeed; hopeless.

Where this word comes from

From Middle English forlorn, forloren, from Old English forloren (past participle of forlēosan (“to lose”)), from Proto-Germanic *fraluzanaz (“lost”), past participle of Proto-Germanic *fraleusaną (“to lose”), equivalent to for- + lorn. Cognate with West Frisian ferlern (“lost”), Saterland Frisian ferlädden (“lost”), Dutch verloren (“lost”), German Low German verloren (“lost”), German verloren (“lost”), Swedish förlorad (“lost”). See further at lese/leese, lorn.

noun/fəˈlɔːn/Received-Pronunciation/fɔːˈlɔːn/Received-Pronunciation/fɚˈlɔɹn/General-American/fɔɹˈlɔɹn/General-American

  1. A forlorn hope.

  2. A member of a forlorn hope.

Where this word comes from

From Middle English forlorn, forloren, from Old English forloren (past participle of forlēosan (“to lose”)), from Proto-Germanic *fraluzanaz (“lost”), past participle of Proto-Germanic *fraleusaną (“to lose”), equivalent to for- + lorn. Cognate with West Frisian ferlern (“lost”), Saterland Frisian ferlädden (“lost”), Dutch verloren (“lost”), German Low German verloren (“lost”), German verloren (“lost”), Swedish förlorad (“lost”). See further at lese/leese, lorn.

verb/fəˈlɔːn/Received-Pronunciation/fɔːˈlɔːn/Received-Pronunciation/fɚˈlɔɹn/General-American/fɔɹˈlɔɹn/General-American

  1. past participle of forlese.

    form-of · obsolete · participle · past
Where this word comes from

From Middle English forlorn, forloren, from Old English forloren (past participle of forlēosan (“to lose”)), from Proto-Germanic *fraluzanaz (“lost”), past participle of Proto-Germanic *fraleusaną (“to lose”), equivalent to for- + lorn. Cognate with West Frisian ferlern (“lost”), Saterland Frisian ferlädden (“lost”), Dutch verloren (“lost”), German Low German verloren (“lost”), German verloren (“lost”), Swedish förlorad (“lost”). See further at lese/leese, lorn.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.