loss
/lɒs/noun, verb
loss is spelled L-O-S-S: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 117 times per million words in written English, the 904th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). People search “loss vs lost” about 2,900 times a month (Google, United States). As a noun, loss means “The result of no longer possessing an object, a function, or a characteristic due to external causes or misplacement” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of loss is losses.
How many letters and syllables are in loss?
| Letters | 4: L-O-S-S |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 117 times per million words; the 904th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Pairs people search | |
| Rhymes with |
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 loss?
Loss appears 117 times per million words in written English, the 904th 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 loss?
- UK /lɒs/
- British /lɔs/
- /lɔs/
Loss 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: En-us-loss.ogg, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Naomi_Persephone_Amethyst_(NaomiAmethyst)-loss.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with loss
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
What rhymes with loss?
6 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as loss from its last stressed vowel (/ɒs/, British pronunciation):
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 loss
- losses plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does loss mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
The result of no longer possessing an object, a function, or a characteristic due to external causes or misplacement.
loss of limb; weight loss; loss of cognitive functions; loss of appetite.
- 2
The destruction or ruin of an object.
- 3
Something that has been destroyed or ruined.
It was a terrible crash; both cars were total losses.
- 4
Defeat; an instance of being defeated.
The match ended in their first loss of the season.
- 5
The death of a person or animal.
We mourn his loss.
- 6
The condition of grief caused by losing someone or something, especially someone who has died.
Her daughter's sense of loss eventually led to depression.
- 7
The sum an entity loses on balance.
The sum of expenditures and taxes minus total income is a loss, when this difference is positive.
- 8
Electricity of kinetic power expended without doing useful work.
The inefficiency of many old-fashioned power plants exceeds 60% loss before the subsequent losses during transport over the grid.
noun
- 1
Alternative form of loess.
verb
- 1
colloquialAlternative spelling of lost.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you abbreviate loss?
Wiktionary records one abbreviation of loss: L.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Loss in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | perte , défaite |
| German | Verlust , Niederlage |
| Portuguese | perda , pesar |
| Spanish | pérdida , derrota |
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 loss come from?
From Middle English los, from Old English los (“damage, destruction, loss”), from Proto-West Germanic *los, from Proto-Germanic *lusą (“dissolution, break-up, loss”), from Proto-Indo-European *lews- (“to cut, sunder, separate, loose, lose”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).