lode
Americannoun
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a veinlike deposit, usually metalliferous.
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any body of ore set off from adjacent rock formations.
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a rich supply or source.
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British. a waterway or channel.
noun
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a deposit of valuable ore occurring between definite limits in the surrounding rock; vein
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a deposit of metallic ore filling a fissure in the surrounding rock
Etymology
Origin of lode
before 900; Middle English; Old English lād way, course, carrying; cognate with Old Norse leith way, route, Old High German leita procession. See load, lade, lead 1
Explanation
If you work in a mine and you find a stripe of gold that seems to stretch on forever, you’ve found a lode of gold — a supply vein of ore. You’re also rich. Don’t confuse lode with load. They sound exactly the same, but while load means a big pile of something, lode means that something’s original source. It usually refers to valuable metals, but you can find a lode of anything, like the lollipop lode at a candy factory or a lode of laughter at a comedy show. You’ll hear about the “mother lode,” which is a lode beyond your imagination, like "the mother lode of riches inside a dragon’s den."
Vocabulary lists containing lode
The Vocabulary.com Top 1000
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Ready Player One
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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.
“In addition, a new mineralized structure has been discovered west of Waihi’s Golden Pole lode further highlighting the exploration upside, opening up another promising zone for follow-up drilling, and potential resource growth,” Euroz Hartleys says.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 15, 2026
After all, he is a stoic prospector who, at the outset of the writer-director Jalmari Helander’s film, discovers a mother lode of gold.
From New York Times • Dec. 15, 2023
For most of the history of mining, the origin story of a mineral lode was beside the point.
From Science Magazine • Jun. 1, 2023
This winter’s hard and heavy storms caused strong bursts of erosion, with rain pounding rocks near the lode sources and rinsing gold downstream.
From Seattle Times • May 22, 2023
Out in those fields, he used to talk about finding the mother lode, though: a mason jar of old money.
From "Shouting at the Rain" by Lynda Mullaly Hunt
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.
