lose one's life

verb

"lose-one-s-life" is a 12-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“lose one's life” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency English
15
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - To die, especially to be killed during involvement in an activity or in some other undertaking.

Corpus desk

Index EN-lose-one-s-life · lose one's life · English

lose one's life · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-MEGA 15 letters
  • VOW-6 6 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-THIN "L" thin
  • PHOTO-UNK Peer pending

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.

Key facts for lose one's life
PropertyValue
Headwordlose one's life
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechVerb
Letters15
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “lose one's life” in English

lose one's lifesits beyond the 100,000 most-frequent English words, in the long tail of technical, archaic, or otherwise rare vocabulary where spelling doubt tends to strike hardest.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

lose one's life is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as averb. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "To die, especially to be killed during involvement in an activity or in some other undertaking.".

We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for lose one's life, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.

No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so its spelling is easiest explained by how it's pronounced rather than where it came from. The correct English form is lose one's life, spelled L-O-S-E- -O-N-E-'-S- -L-I-F-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    To die, especially to be killed during involvement in an activity or in some other undertaking.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how lose one's life appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. The people so highly resented this law, that our histories tell us, there have been six rebellions raised on that account; wherein one emperor lost his life.
  2. I have no ambition to lose my life on the post-road between St. Petersburgh and Archangel.

This word in other languages

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "lose one's life"?
"lose one's life" is spelled L-O-S-E- -O-N-E-'-S- -L-I-F-E.
What does "lose one's life" mean?
As a verb, "lose one's life" means: To die, especially to be killed during involvement in an activity or in some other undertaking.
What language does "lose one's life" come from?
"lose one's life" is a English word. PlainSpell's reference spans five languages -- English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German -- with definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for each.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list