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PlainSpell

loop

/luːp/noun, verb

loop is spelled L-O-O-P: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 19 times per million words in written English, the 4,365th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, loop means “A length of thread, line or rope that is doubled over to make an opening” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of loop is loops.

How many letters and syllables are in loop?

Letters4: L-O-O-P
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing19 times per million words; the 4,365th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Pairs people search
Sounds like
Same letters

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); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is loop?

Loop appears 19 times per million words in written English, the 4,365th 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 loop?

  • /luːp/

Loop 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: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-loop.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Words people confuse with loop

Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).

loop vs loup0 B

Sounds like: loupe (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).

Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

What rhymes with loop?

No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as loop.

Spelled with the same letters in another order: pool, polo.

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 loop

  • loops plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • looping participle, present
  • looped participle, past

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

What does loop mean?

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

noun

  1. 1

    A length of thread, line or rope that is doubled over to make an opening.

  2. 2

    The opening so formed.

  3. 3

    A shape produced by a curve that bends around and crosses itself.

    Arches, loops, and whorls are patterns found in fingerprints.

  4. 4

    A process that returns to its beginning and then repeats itself in the same sequence.

    feedback loop

  5. 5

    A ring road or beltway.

  6. 6

    An endless strip of tape or film allowing continuous repetition.

  7. 7

    A complete circuit for an electric current.

  8. 8

    A programmed sequence of instructions that is repeated until or while a particular condition is satisfied.

verb

  1. 1

    To form something into a loop.

  2. 2

    To fasten or encircle something with a loop.

  3. 3

    To fly an aircraft in a loop.

  4. 4

    To move something in a loop.

  5. 5

    To play something (such as a song or video) in a loop.

  6. 6

    To join electrical components to complete a circuit.

  7. 7

    To duplicate the route of a pipeline.

  8. 8

    To create an error in a computer program so that it runs in an endless loop and the computer freezes up.

noun

as LOOP
  1. 1

    Acronym of loss of offsite power.

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

How do you abbreviate loop?

Wiktionary records one abbreviation of loop: lp.

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

Loop in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchboucle (length of thread, line or rope), circuit fermé (complete circuit for an electric current)
GermanSchlaufe, Schlinge (length of thread, line or rope), Stromkreis (complete circuit for an electric current), Schleife (shape produced by a curve that bends around and…), Endlosschleife (endless strip of tape or film allowing…)
Portugueselaço (length of thread, line or rope), circuito (complete circuit for an electric current), fita (endless strip of tape or film allowing…), ciclo (programmed sequence of instructions), repetir (programa) (to create an endless loop in a computer program)
Spanishlazo, lazada, gaza, recodo (length of thread, line or rope)

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 loop come from?

From Middle English loupe (“noose, loop”), earlier lowp-knot (“loop-knot”), of North Germanic origin, from Old Norse hlaup (“a run”), used in the sense of a "running knot", from hlaupa (“to leap”), ultimately from Proto-Germanic *hlaupaną (“to leap, run”). Compare Swedish löp-knut (“loop-knot”), Danish løb-knude (“a running knot”), Danish løb (“a course”). More at leap. The verb is derived from the noun.

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

What to look up after loop