loanword
Americannoun
-
loanwords
plural
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of loanword
1870–75; translation of German Lehnwort
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The sheer clip at which English words rotate in and out of the vernacular has made it difficult for any statistic to accurately capture the scale of loanword creep.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 3, 2025
Local journalists describe the scenes here as the local telenovela, a Spanish loanword meaning soap opera.
From Time ● Oct. 27, 2017
Sadly, these words failed to stick, and nowadays one is forced to answer wrong numbers on a loanword: tilifun.
From The New Yorker ● Apr. 10, 2017
By the way, I knew the difference between a loanword and a calque and the Defiant Ones, but not what was going on in the car with Giardia.
From Slate ● Mar. 8, 2013
Wherever a W. Scand. source is accepted fora loanword the O. N. form is given if it be different from O. Ic.
From Scandinavian influence on Southern Lowland Scotch by Flom, George Tobias
Other countries have also tried to thwart the encroachment of loanwords.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 3, 2025
During World War I, “hamburger steak” became “Salisbury steak,” part of an effort to curb the use of German loanwords, according to H.L.
From New York Times ● Oct. 8, 2021
Ideally tech companies will also tackle code-switching and translanguaging, but loanwords are a logical first step.
From Slate ● Apr. 14, 2021
As for the rest of the vocabulary, about half comes from Italian, with English and French loanwords.
From The New Yorker ● Aug. 27, 2018
The general character of the Scand. loanwords in Sco. is Norse, not Dan.
From Scandinavian influence on Southern Lowland Scotch by Flom, George Tobias
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
