lose one's marbles

verb

"lose-one-s-marbles" is a 15-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

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

Unranked
below top-frequency English
18
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Synonym of lose one's mind (“to become crazy”).

Key facts for lose one's marbles
PropertyValue
Headwordlose one's marbles
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechVerb
Letters18
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Where “lose one's marbles” sits in English frequency

lose one's marbles falls outside the top-100,000 ranked English words, the long-tail zone of technical, archaic, or low-frequency vocabulary, exactly where readers second-guess spellings most.

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

Rare enough to double-check

lose one's marbles is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as averb. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Synonym of lose one's mind (“to become crazy”).".

lose one's marbles doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. Our dataset records no confusable match here, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.

No borrowing history is documented for this entry, so its spelling is best explained by sound-to-letter mapping rather than etymology. The correct English form is lose one's marbles, spelled L-O-S-E- -O-N-E-'-S- -M-A-R-B-L-E-S.

Definition

  1. 1
    Synonym of lose one's mind (“to become crazy”).

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 marbles"?
"lose one's marbles" is spelled L-O-S-E- -O-N-E-'-S- -M-A-R-B-L-E-S.
What does "lose one's marbles" mean?
As a verb, "lose one's marbles" means: Synonym of lose one's mind (“to become crazy”).
What language does "lose one's marbles" come from?
"lose one's marbles" is a English word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
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.

Using “lose one's marbles”

The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.

  • The one correct English spelling is L-O-S-E- -O-N-E-'-S- -M-A-R-B-L-E-S - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
  • Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source

Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list