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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

loss.

The result of no longer possessing an object, a function, or a characteristic due to external causes or misplacement.

4 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/lɒs/Canada, Northern-England, Received-Pronunciation, Wales/lɔs/Australia, British, Scotland, Southern, Standard/lɔs//lɑs/cot-caught-merger
  1. The result of no longer possessing an object, a function, or a characteristic due to external causes or misplacement.

    countable
    loss of limb; weight loss; loss of cognitive functions; loss of appetite.
    People are less willing to take a risk to make a gain than to avoid a loss.
  2. The destruction or ruin of an object.

    uncountable
  3. Something that has been destroyed or ruined.

    countable
    It was a terrible crash; both cars were total losses.
  4. Defeat; an instance of being defeated.

    countable
    The match ended in their first loss of the season.
  5. The death of a person or animal.

    countable
    We mourn his loss.
    The battle was won, but losses were great.
  6. The condition of grief caused by losing someone or something, especially someone who has died.

    uncountable
    Her daughter's sense of loss eventually led to depression.
  7. The sum an entity loses on balance.

    countable
    The sum of expenditures and taxes minus total income is a loss, when this difference is positive.
  8. Electricity of kinetic power expended without doing useful work.

    countable · uncountable
    The inefficiency of many old-fashioned power plants exceeds 60% loss before the subsequent losses during transport over the grid.
Where this word comes from

From Middle English los, from Old English los (“damage, destruction, loss”), from Proto-West Germanic *los, from Proto-Germanic *lusą (“dissolution, break-up, loss”), from Proto-Indo-European *lews- (“to cut, sunder, separate, loose, lose”). Cognate with Icelandic los (“dissolution, looseness, break-up”), Old English lor, forlor (“loss, ruin”), Middle High German verlor (“loss, ruin”). More at lose.

verb
  1. Alternative spelling of lost.

    alt-of · alternative · colloquial
Where this word comes from

Pronunciation spelling of lost, representing African-American Vernacular English.

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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.