loss

From Middle English los, from Old English los (“damage, destruction, loss”), 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.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /lɒs/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /lɔs/
• (cot–caught merger, Canada) IPA^(key): /lɑs/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɒs, -ɔːs

loss (countable and uncountable, plural losses)

1. (countable) The result of no longer possessing an object, a function, or a characteristic due to external causes or misplacement.

   Antonym: gain

   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.

2. (uncountable) The destruction or ruin of an object.
3. (countable) Something that has been destroyed or ruined.

   It was a terrible crash; both cars were total losses.

4. (countable) Defeat; an instance of being defeated.

   Antonyms: win, victory

   The match ended in their first loss of the season.

5. (countable) The death of a person or animal.

   We mourn his loss.

   The battle was won, but losses were great.

6. (uncountable) 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. (financial, countable) The sum an entity loses on balance.

   Antonym: profit

   The sum of expenditures and taxes minus total income is a loss, when this difference is positive.

8. (engineering) 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.

• The possessive of loss is often constructed as loss of rather than 's loss.
• loss is often the subject of the verbs make or take. See Appendix:Collocations of do, have, make, and take

• lose

Pronunciation spelling of lost, representing African-American Vernacular English.

loss

1. (colloquial) Alternative spelling of lost

• SOLs, Sols, sols

Borrowed from German Schloss, from Middle High German slōz, from Old High German sloz.

• IPA^(key): /ˈlosʲː/, [ˈlosʲː]
• Hyphenation: loss

loss (genitive lossi, partitive lossi)

1. castle

• “loss”, in [PSV] Eesti keele põhisõnavara sõnastik [Dictionary of Estonian Basic Vocabulary] (in Estonian) (online version, not updated), Tallinn: Eesti Keele Sihtasutus (Estonian Language Foundation), 2014
• “loss”, in [EKSS] Eesti keele seletav sõnaraamat [Descriptive Dictionary of the Estonian Language] (in Estonian) (online version), Tallinn: Eesti Keele Sihtasutus (Estonian Language Foundation), 2009
• “loss”, in [ÕS] Eesti õigekeelsussõnaraamat ÕS 2018 [Estonian Spelling Dictionary] (in Estonian) (online version), Tallinn: Eesti Keele Sihtasutus (Estonian Language Foundation), 2018, →ISBN
• loss in Sõnaveeb (Eesti Keele Instituut)

loss

1. imperative of losse

Like Danish los and Norwegian loss, from Low German or Dutch los, from Middle Low German or Middle Dutch los, byform of Low German lōs or Dutch loos respectively, cognate with Swedish lös.

loss (not comparable)

1. to a no longer attached or stuck state (no longer stuck to something, generally); loose, off, untied

   Han drog i den, och till slut kom den loss

   He pulled on it, and finally it came loose

   Han sparkade loss grenen

   He kicked the branch off

   Jag är fast i kvicksand och kommer inte loss

   I'm stuck in quicksand and can't get out (get unstuck)

   De knöt loss båten

   They untied the boat (from the pier)

• kasta loss

• lossa
• lossna
• lossning

• loss in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• loss in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
• loss in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)

• sols