overwordExplorer
ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

purloin.

To take the property of another, often in breach of trust; to appropriate wrongfully; to steal.

7 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

verb/pɜːˈlɔɪn/Received-Pronunciation
  1. To take the property of another, often in breach of trust; to appropriate wrongfully; to steal.

    formal · humorous · transitive · usually
  2. To commit theft; to thieve.

    intransitive
Where this word comes from

From Middle English purloynen (“to remove”), borrowed from Anglo-Norman purloigner (“to put far away”), one of the variants of Old French porloignier. Doublet of prolong.

FROM WORD TO NAME

Try it on your idea.

purloin has 7 characters. Say it out loud, try it alongside a description of your project, and see whether its meaning fits what you want to create.

purloin studiopurloin workshello, purloin

These are naming prompts. Meanings and pronunciation can vary; existing brand and domain uses have not been checked.

Explore the name generator

A word with a source.

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.