loss
/lɒs/
"loss" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“loss” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #907) as a noun. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.
- #907
- frequency rank, English
- 2,297
- “L” headwords
- 3
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 2, 2026) - The result of no longer possessing an object, a function, or a characteristic due to external causes or misplacement.
Corpus desk
Index EN-loss · loss · English
loss · rank #907 · 3 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-CORE #907
- LEN-MID 4 letters
- VOW-1 1 vowel
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-LOW 3 variants
- BOOK-MID 2,297
- PHOTO-FINISH knows
Nearest frequency peer: knows (-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.
Frequency neighbourhood for “loss”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- figure
figure
99,097 corpus weight
- hospital
hospital
99,096 corpus weight
- knows
knows
99,095 corpus weight
- loss
loss
99,094 corpus weight
- modern
modern
99,093 corpus weight
- ones
ones
99,092 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “loss” sits against the nearest ranked English headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | loss |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /lɒs/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #907 |
| Misspellings tracked | 3 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “loss” sits in English frequency
Easy to mix with look-alikes
The spelling risk for loss is neighbouring look-alikes ("Ls", "lot", …), not just typos; it is anoun pronounced /lɒs/. Frequency #907 among 2,297 “L” headwords. 8 recorded senses keep meaning in play.
Our generated misspelling index lists 3 likely wrong-spelling variants for loss, with forms such as "lloss", "lsos", and "olss". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "Ls", "lot", "low", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: 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”). Cognate with Ic… The correct English form is loss, spelled L-O-S-S.
Definition
- 1The result of no longer possessing an object, a function, or a characteristic due to external causes or misplacement.
- 2The destruction or ruin of an object.
- 3Something that has been destroyed or ruined.
- 4Defeat; an instance of being defeated.
- 5The death of a person or animal.
- 6The condition of grief caused by losing someone or something, especially someone who has died.
- 7The sum an entity loses on balance.
- 8Electricity of kinetic power expended without doing useful work.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how loss appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
loss of limb; weight loss; loss of cognitive functions; loss of appetite.
In other areas, glacier loss creates serious risk of a dry period across the Third Pole, Wang said.
Etymology
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”). Cognate with Icelandic los (“dissolution, looseness, break-up”), Old English lor, forlor (“loss, ruin”), Middle High German verlor (“loss, ruin”). More at lose.
Synonyms
Antonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- lloss
- lsos
- olss
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of loss - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
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.
PlainSpell is rendered directly from structured Wiktionary extracts and open word-frequency lists, no number is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of September 2, 2026. Primary sources: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) and FrequencyWords.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "loss", not the corpus desk frequency band.
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.