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PlainSpell

loot

/lut/noun, verb

loot is spelled L-O-O-T: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 3.1 times per million words in written English, the 15,146th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, loot means “Synonym of booty, goods seized from an enemy by violence, particularly (historical) during the sacking of a town in war or (video games) after…” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of loot is loots.

How many letters and syllables are in loot?

Letters4: L-O-O-T
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing3.1 times per million words; the 15,146th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Pairs people search
Sounds like
Rhymes with
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 loot?

Loot appears 3.1 times per million words in written English, the 15,146th 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 loot?

  • UK /luːt/
  • US /lut/
  • Australia /ɫʉːt/

Loot 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-loot.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Words people confuse with loot

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

loot vs lute0 B

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

Also written: lieutenant.

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

What rhymes with loot?

The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as loot from its last stressed vowel (/ut/):

Spelled with the same letters in another order: tool.

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 loot

  • loots present, singular, he/she/it, plural
  • looting participle, present
  • looted participle, past
  • lute

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

What does loot mean?

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

noun

  1. 1

    Synonym of booty, goods seized from an enemy by violence, particularly (historical) during the sacking of a town in war or (video games) after successful combat.

    India went from being a world-famous exporter of finished cloth into an importer, went from having 27% of world trade to less than 2%. Meanwhile, colonialists like Sir Robert Clive bought their rotten boroughs in England on the proceeds of

  2. 2

    Synonym of sack, the plundering of a city, particularly during war.

    He consented to the loot of the city by the men under his command.

  3. 3

    UScolloquialAny valuable thing received for free, especially Christmas presents.

    Free Loot for Children

  4. 4

    slangSynonym of money.

  5. 5

    ScotlandUKA scoop used to remove scum from brine pans in saltworks.

  6. 6

    USdatedslangClipping of lieutenant.

verb

  1. 1

    Synonym of plunder, to seize by violence, particularly during the capture of a city during war or (video games) after successful combat.

    We looted the temple and the orphanage, which turned most of the NPCs against us.

  2. 2

    To rifle through a dead body and the deceased's belongings, taking anything worth stealing.

    It's shameful to loot the bodies of the people who died today.

  3. 3

    Synonym of rob, to steal something from someone by violence or threat of violence.

    He told me... that if I gave him less than to the master of the luggage-boat, he would... declare at Shēr-Gurry that I had ‘looted him!’

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

Loot in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchfric, pognon (slang: money, especially illicitly acquired), piller (to plunder)
GermanKnete, Zaster (slang: money, especially illicitly acquired), plündern (to plunder)
Portuguesemoedas (slang: money, especially illicitly acquired), saquear, pilhar, bundar, lootear (to plunder)
Spanishbagayo (slang: money, especially illicitly acquired)

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 loot come from?

Borrowed from Hindi लूट (lūṭ, “booty”), either from Sanskrit लोप्त्र (loptra, “booty, stolen property”) or लुण्ट् (luṇṭ, “to rob, plunder”). The figurative meaning developed in American English in the 1920s, resulting in a generalized meaning by the 1950s.

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

What to look up after loot