loan

\ləʊn\

/\ləʊn\/ noun

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

The verdict

“loan” is uncommon French (frequency #50,945 among 2,567 “L” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#50,945
frequency rank, French
2,567
“L” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Emprunt, prêt.

Corpus desk

Index FR-loan · loan · French

loan · rank #50,945 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #50,945
  • LEN-MID 4 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 2,567
  • PHOTO-FINISH longitudinal

Nearest frequency peer: longitudinal (+1 rank slots)

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.

Rangs de longue queue près de « loan »

Bande clairsemée: les barres inversent le rang pour que le rare se lise plus court

corpus weight

What this shows Vue de longue queue: où « loan » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for loan
PropertyValue
Headwordloan
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\ləʊn\
Letters4
Frequency rank#50,945
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « loan » en français

La fréquence va de la poignée de mots du quotidien (gauche) à la longue queue presque jamais vue (droite).loantombe dans cette queue de rareté:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Les tics avancent en logarithme; chacun est de l'ordre de dix fois plus rare. Voisins rares de la même bande: « longitudinal » (#50,946), « Lisbeth » (#50,943), « lopin » (#50,947). Parmi 2,567 lemmes en « L », « loan » est au #50,945. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

loan is uncommon French at frequency #50,945 among 2,567 “L” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed \ləʊn\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Emprunt, prêt.".

loan has no tracked misspelling variants, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.

Our source data has no etymology on file for this entry, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct French form is loan, spelled L-O-A-N.

Definition

  1. 1
    Emprunt, prêt.

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

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

  1. The council of buccaneers had lasted some time, when one of them re-entered the house, and with a repetition of the same salute, which had in my eyes an ironical air, begged for a moment's loan of the torch. (Treasure Island -Robert Louis Stevenson)

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 French corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "loan"?
"loan" is spelled L-O-A-N. The IPA pronunciation is \ləʊn\.
What does "loan" mean?
As a noun, "loan" means: Emprunt, prêt.
How do you pronounce "loan"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "loan" is \ləʊn\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "loan" come from?
"loan" is a French word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
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.

Similar French words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "loan", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

LDLC#50,939lazy#50,936macs#50,954mash#50,966

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list