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PlainSpell

gloss

/ɡlɔs/noun, verb

gloss is spelled G-L-O-S-S: 5 letters and one syllable. It appears 3.0 times per million words in written English, the 15,613th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, gloss means “A surface shine or luster” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of gloss is glosses.

How many letters and syllables are in gloss?

Letters5: G-L-O-S-S
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing3.0 times per million words; the 15,613th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Rhymes with

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is gloss?

Gloss appears 3.0 times per million words in written English, the 15,613th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce gloss?

  • UK /ɡlɒs/
  • US /ɡlɔs/
  • /ɡlɑs/

Gloss has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-gloss.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

What rhymes with gloss?

7 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as gloss from its last stressed vowel (/ɔs/):

Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).

Forms of gloss

  • glosses plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • glossing participle, present
  • glossed participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does gloss mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    A surface shine or luster.

  2. 2

    A superficially or deceptively attractive appearance.

    .

  3. 3

    A brief explanatory note or translation of a foreign, archaic, technical, difficult, complex, or uncommon expression, inserted after the original, in the margin of a document, or between lines of a text.

  4. 4

    Synonym of glossary, a collection of such notes.

  5. 5

    obsoleteAn expression requiring such explanatory treatment.

  6. 6

    An extensive commentary on some text.

  7. 7

    USAn interpretation by a court of a specific point within a statute or case law.

  8. 8

    A definition or explanation of a word sense.

verb

  1. 1

    To give a gloss or sheen to.

  2. 2

    To make (something) attractive by deception

  3. 3

    To become shiny.

  4. 4

    Used in a phrasal verb: gloss over (“to cover up a mistake or crime, to treat something with less care than it deserves”).

  5. 5

    To add a gloss to (a text).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Gloss in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchbrillant (surface shine), glose (brief explanatory note or translation of a…)
GermanGlanz, Schimmer, Glitzern (surface shine), Fassade, Schönfärberei, Politur (superficially or deceptively attractive…)
Portugueselustre, lustro, brilho (surface shine), glosa (brief explanatory note or translation of a…), brilhar (become shiny), glosar (to add a gloss to (a text))
Spanishbrillo, lustre (surface shine), glosa (brief explanatory note or translation of a…), glosar (to add a gloss to (a text))

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does gloss come from?

Probably from a North Germanic language, compare Icelandic glossi (“spark, flame”), glossa (“to flame”); or perhaps from dialectal Dutch gloos (“a glow, flare”), related to West Frisian gloeze (“a glow”), Middle Low German glȫsen (“to smoulder, glow”), German glosen (“to smoulder”); ultimately from Proto-Germanic *glus- (“to glow, shine”), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰel- (“to flourish; be green or yellow”). More at glow.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after gloss