lorn
/lɔːn/
"lorn" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“lorn” is uncommon English (frequency #95,089 among 2,297 “L” headwords), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #95,089
- frequency rank, English
- 2,297
- “L” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Doomed; lost.
Corpus desk
Index EN-lorn · lorn · English
lorn · rank #95,089 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #95,089
- LEN-MID 4 letters
- VOW-1 1 vowel
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 2,297
- PHOTO-FINISH longhand
Nearest frequency peer: longhand (-1 rank slots)
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
Long-tail ranks near “lorn”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- lodestar
lodestar
4,916 corpus weight
- longhand
longhand
4,913 corpus weight
- lorn
lorn
4,912 corpus weight
- Lothrop
Lothrop
4,911 corpus weight
- lynchpin
lynchpin
4,908 corpus weight
- Machynlleth
Machynlleth
4,904 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “lorn” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | lorn |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /lɔːn/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #95,089 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “lorn” in English
Rare enough to double-check
lorn is uncommon English at frequency #95,089 among 2,297 “L” headwords, classed as anadjective, transcribed /lɔːn/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for lorn, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English lorn, loren, ilorn, iloren (past participle of lese, lesen (“to lose, be deprived of; to damn, doom to perdition”)), from Old English loren, ġeloren, from Proto-Germanic *galuzanaz, *luzanaz, past participle of Proto-Germanic *leusaną (“… The correct English form is lorn, spelled L-O-R-N.
Definition
- 1Doomed; lost.
- 2Abandoned, forlorn, lonely.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how lorn appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
I loue thilke laſſe, (alas why do I loue:) / And am forlorne, (alas why am I lorne:) / Shee deignes not my good will, but doth reproue, / And of my rurall muſick holdeth ſcorne.
Yet, trust me, Memory's warmest sighs / Are often breathed in moments lorn— / And many a feeling thought will rise / And in the bosom die unborn.
Etymology
From Middle English lorn, loren, ilorn, iloren (past participle of lese, lesen (“to lose, be deprived of; to damn, doom to perdition”)), from Old English loren, ġeloren, from Proto-Germanic *galuzanaz, *luzanaz, past participle of Proto-Germanic *leusaną (“to lose”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *lewH- (“to cut, sever; to separate; to loosen; to lose”). See further at lese.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "lorn", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).