loft

American  

[lawft, loft] / lɔft, lɒft /

noun

• lofts
  plural

1. a room, storage area, or the like within a sloping roof; attic; garret.

2. a gallery or upper level in a church, hall, etc., designed for a special purpose.

   a choir loft.

3. a hayloft.

4. an upper story of a business building, warehouse, or factory, typically consisting of open, unpartitioned floor area.

5. such an upper story converted or adapted to any of various uses, as quarters for living, studios for artists or dancers, exhibition galleries, or theater space.

6. Also called loft bed.  a balcony or platform built over a living area and used especially for sleeping.

7. Chiefly Midland and Southern U.S. an attic.

8. Golf.

   1. the slope of the face of the head of a club backward from the vertical, tending to drive the ball upward.

   2. the act of lofting.

   3. a lofting stroke.

9. the resiliency of fabric or yarn, especially wool.

10. the thickness of a fabric or of insulation used in a garment, as a down-filled jacket.

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verb (used with object)

• lofts,
  present (3rd person singular)
• lofted,
  past participle,  past
• lofting
  present participle

1. to hit or throw aloft.

   He lofted a fly ball into center field.

2. Golf.

   1. to slant the face of (a club).

   2. to hit (a golf ball) into the air or over an obstacle.

   3. to clear (an obstacle) in this manner.

3. to store in a loft.

4. Shipbuilding. to form or describe (the lines of a hull) at full size, as in a mold loft; lay off.

5. Archaic. to provide (a house, barn, etc.) with a loft.

verb (used without object)

• lofts,
  present (3rd person singular)
• lofted,
  past participle,  past
• lofting
  present participle

1. to hit or throw something aloft, especially a ball.

2. to go high into the air when hit, as a ball.

loft British  

/ lɒft /

noun

1. the space inside a roof

2. a gallery, esp one for the choir in a church

3. a room over a stable used to store hay

4. an upper storey of a warehouse or factory, esp when converted into living space

5. a raised house or coop in which pigeons are kept

6. sport

   1. (in golf) the angle from the vertical made by the club face to give elevation to a ball

   2. elevation imparted to a ball

   3. a lofting stroke or shot

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verb

1. sport to strike or kick (a ball) high in the air

2. to store or place in a loft

3. to lay out a full-scale working drawing of (the lines of a vessel's hull)

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• underloft
  noun
• loftless
  adjective
• well-lofted
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• lofts
  plural

Participles

• lofting
  present
• lofted
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• loft
  simple
• lofts
  simple
• have lofted
  perfect
• has lofted
  perfect
• am lofting
  progressive
• are lofting
  progressive
• is lofting
  progressive
• have been lofting
  perfect progressive
• has been lofting
  perfect progressive

Past

• lofted
  simple
• had lofted
  perfect
• was lofting
  progressive
• were lofting
  progressive
• had been lofting
  perfect progressive

Future

• will loft
  simple
• will have lofted
  perfect
• will be lofting
  progressive
• will have been lofting
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of loft

before 1000; Middle English lofte (noun), late Old English loft < Old Norse lopt upper chamber or region, the air, sky. See lift

Explanation

When you loft something, you throw it high into the air, the way a baseball player might loft a ball from the outfield all the way to first base. Any way you propel an object — whether you throw, kick, or slingshot it — if it launches up and across a distance, you loft it. Another kind of loft is the large, open space above a warehouse or shop in which people live or work. Artists are particularly well known for having apartments or studios in lofts. This is closest to the word's original meaning, "an upper chamber," from the Old English loft, which means "the sky."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

loft lofts lofted lofting

Ben Ganz and India Ennenga, a newly married product designer and writer, are starting their next chapter in a Manhattan loft that he has redesigned as a live-work space.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 14, 2026

Among them was Cameron’s upstairs work loft, where Alix ripped out the carpet before adding dark gray textured walls, wood flooring, custom black shelving, weathered-looking light fixtures, and a large glass table.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 8, 2026

It went from the loft to the club to the mega bar, and now it has gone to the arena.

From Salon ● Sep. 6, 2026

Co-founders and partners Lena Martin and Mandolin Burns graduated from CalArts, and in their search for a place to live, they found a loft in the Arts District where they could potentially perform.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 30, 2026

We climbed up into the loft, wrapped some hay up in blankets for pallets, and settled into bed.

From "My Brother Sam is Dead" by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier

Near the adventure hub of Mindo, the newly opened Saloya offers treetop lofts, an infinity pool and a fine-dining restaurant.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 20, 2025

The urban revival in downtown L.A. produced 12,000 new homes but most were high-end apartments or lofts, and SRO hotel units continued to decline.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 10, 2025

In 2023 Bellway admitted some of the roofs were faulty and agreed to improve ventilation and lay new insulation, but the work took nearly two years, and people's lofts were exposed for months under scaffolding.

From BBC ● Jan. 13, 2025

But fear not, Apex isn’t just hanging out in one of Griffin’s lofts, overseeing his nightly buffet of caviar and gold-leafed Pringles.

From Slate ● Dec. 13, 2024

The kitchens were full of shadows and echoes, but the other cooks and scullions were all asleep in the cavernous lofts above the ovens.

From "A Clash of Kings" by George R.R. Martin

However, his lofted pass helped create Fulham's second goal.

From BBC ● Aug. 24, 2026

From October 2024 through January 2025, as bitcoin lofted past $100,000, investors poured an astounding $20.7 billion into this group of ETFs.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 10, 2026

It was a familiar sight: Caitlin Clark stepped to her left, paused and lofted a right-handed layup.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 23, 2026

“This meticulously restored Victorian delivers the ultimate Hamptons lifestyle: a luxuriously appointed main residence, a lofted studio, and resort-like grounds with a heated gunite pool.”

From MarketWatch ● Apr. 8, 2026

His cosmological theory described a flat earth suspended in air, with the other celestial objects lofted above, like leaves blown on a universal wind.

From "Circumference" by Nicholas Nicastro

Touted for years by Musk as the key to taking humans to Mars, SpaceX is now looking to show that Starship can work, including by lofting the company’s own satellites into orbit.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 4, 2026

Oviedo gave away a poor second goal after 57 minutes, with Raphinha running on to an undercooked back-pass from David Costas and lofting the ball over Oviedo goalkeeper Aaron Escandell.

From Barron's ● Jan. 25, 2026

This, meaning Ohtani lofting a ball high toward the right-center field wall.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 1, 2024

Powerful monsoon winds, strengthened by a warming climate, are lofting unexpectedly large quantities of ozone-depleting substances high into the atmosphere over East Asia, new research shows.

From Science Daily ● Apr. 23, 2024

Iron.—An iron-headed club intermediate between the cleek and lofting mashie.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 12, Slice 2 "Gloss" to "Gordon, Charles George" by Various

Related Words

• apartment
• studio