lose
German, adjective
lose is spelled L-O-S-E (4 letters) and appears 8.3 times per million words in written German, the 8,191st most frequent German word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Lose is a German adjective meaning “loose, slack” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is also a first-person singular present of losen. With a capital, Lose is a different word: “nominative/accusative/genitive plural of Los”. With an umlaut, löse is a different word: “first-person singular present”. The German Wiktionary defines it as “nicht mehr ganz fest”.
What does lose mean in English?
adjective
- 1
loose, slack
Die Schraube muss nachgezogen werden; sie ist etwas lose.
verb
- 1
first-person singular present
- 2
first/third-person singular subjunctive I
- 3
singular imperative
noun
- 1
nominative/accusative/genitive plural of Los
verb
- 1
first-person singular present
- 2
first/third-person singular subjunctive I
- 3
singular imperative
Source: English Wiktionary, German section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How German dictionaries define it
adjective: 1. nicht mehr ganz fest 2. nicht vor vornherein verpackt 3. nicht zurückhaltend
The definition in the German Wiktionary, in German.
Source: German Wiktionary, dump of September 1, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org.
Forms of lose
- loser masculine nominative singular
- am losesten superlative
- loses neuter nominative singular
- losen genitive masculine singular
- losem dative masculine singular
- der lose definite includes-article masculine
- die lose definite feminine includes-article
- das lose definite includes-article neuter
- die losen definite includes-article nominative
- des losen definite genitive includes-article
- der losen definite feminine genitive
- dem losen dative definite includes-article
- den losen dative definite includes-article
Source: English Wiktionary and German Wiktionary (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
English words that translate to lose
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.
How common is lose in German?
lose appears 8.3 times per million words in written German.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).