loss
/lɒs/
"loss" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“loss” is in the everyday core of English, ranked #907 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #907
- frequency rank, English
- 4
- letters
- 3
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - The result of no longer possessing an object, a function, or a characteristic due to external causes or misplacement.
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
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for loss is 4 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /lɒs/. Corpus data places it at rank #907 in overall English word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language. Wiktionary records 8 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
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.
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.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “loss”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is L-O-S-S - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /lɒs/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “Ls” - see the side-by-side comparison. loss vs Ls
- 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.