loss

English Online Dictionary. What means loss‎? What does loss mean?

English

Etymology 1

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.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /lɒs/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /lɔs/
  • (cot–caught merger) IPA^(key): /lɑs/
• Rhymes: -ɒs, -ɔːs

Noun

loss (countable and uncountable, plural losses)

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

   Antonym: gain

2. (uncountable) The destruction or ruin of an object.
3. (countable) Something that has been destroyed or ruined.

4. (countable) Defeat; an instance of being defeated.

   Antonyms: win, victory

5. (countable) The death of a person or animal.

6. (uncountable) The condition of grief caused by losing someone or something, especially someone who has died.

7. (financial, countable) The sum an entity loses on balance.

   Antonym: profit

8. (engineering) Electricity of kinetic power expended without doing useful work.

Usage notes

• The possessive of loss is often constructed as loss of rather than 's loss.
• loss is often the subject of the verbs make or take. See Appendix:Collocations of do, have, make, and take

Derived terms

Related terms

• lose

Translations

Etymology 2

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

Verb

loss

1. (colloquial) Alternative spelling of lost

Anagrams

• SOLs, Sols, sols

Estonian

Etymology

Borrowed from German Schloss, from Middle High German slōz, from Old High German sloz.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈlosʲː/, [ˈlosʲː]
• Hyphenation: loss

Noun

loss (genitive lossi, partitive lossi)

1. castle

Declension

Further reading

• “loss”, in [PSV] Eesti keele põhisõnavara sõnastik [Dictionary of Estonian Basic Vocabulary] (in Estonian) (online version, not updated), Tallinn: Eesti Keele Sihtasutus (Estonian Language Foundation), 2014
• “loss”, in [EKSS] Eesti keele seletav sõnaraamat [Descriptive Dictionary of the Estonian Language] (in Estonian) (online version), Tallinn: Eesti Keele Sihtasutus (Estonian Language Foundation), 2009
• “loss”, in [ÕS] Eesti õigekeelsussõnaraamat ÕS 2018 [Estonian Spelling Dictionary] (in Estonian) (online version), Tallinn: Eesti Keele Sihtasutus (Estonian Language Foundation), 2018, →ISBN
• loss in Sõnaveeb (Eesti Keele Instituut)

Norwegian Bokmål

Verb

loss

1. imperative of losse

Swedish

Etymology

From Low German los (“free, loose”), from Middle Low German lōs, from Old Saxon lōs, from Proto-West Germanic *laus.

See also Danish los and Norwegian loss, Dutch loos. Doublet of lös.

Adverb

loss (not comparable)

1. to a no longer attached or stuck state (no longer stuck to something, generally); loose, off, untied

Derived terms

• kasta loss

Related terms

• lossa
• lossna
• lossning

References

• loss in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• loss in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
• loss in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)

Anagrams

• sols