loss

American  

[laws, los] / lɔs, lɒs /

noun

• losses
  plural

1. detriment, disadvantage, or deprivation from failure to keep, have, or get.

   to bear the loss of a robbery.

   Antonyms:

   gain

2. something that is lost.

   The painting was the greatest loss from the robbery.

3. an amount or number lost.

   The loss of life increased each day.

4. the state of being deprived of or of being without something that one has had.

   the loss of old friends.

   Synonyms:

   deprivation, privation

5. death, or the fact of being dead.

   to mourn the loss of a grandparent.

6. the accidental or inadvertent losing of something dropped, misplaced, stolen, etc..

   to discover the loss of a document.

7. a losing by defeat; failure to win.

   the loss of a bet.

8. failure to make good use of something, as time; waste.

9. failure to preserve or maintain.

   loss of engine speed at high altitudes.

10. destruction or ruin.

    the loss of a ship by fire.

11. a thing or a number of related things that are lost or destroyed to some extent.

    Most buildings in the burned district were a total loss.

12. Military.

    1. the losing of soldiers by death, capture, etc.

    2. Often losses. the number of soldiers so lost.

13. Insurance. occurrence of an event, as death or damage of property, for which the insurer makes indemnity under the terms of a policy.

14. Electricity. a measure of the power lost in a system, as by conversion to heat, expressed as a relation between power input and power output, as the ratio of or difference between the two quantities.

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idioms

1. at a loss,

   1. at less than cost; at a financial loss.

   2. in a state of bewilderment or uncertainty; puzzled; perplexed.

      We are completely at a loss for an answer to the problem.

loss British  

/ lɒs /

noun

1. the act or an instance of losing

2. the disadvantage or deprivation resulting from losing

   a loss of reputation

3. the person, thing, or amount lost

   a large loss

4. (plural) military personnel lost by death or capture

5. (sometimes plural) the amount by which the costs of a business transaction or operation exceed its revenue

6. a measure of the power lost in an electrical system expressed as the ratio of or difference between the input power and the output power

7. insurance

   1. an occurrence of something that has been insured against, thus giving rise to a claim by a policyholder

   2. the amount of the resulting claim

8. 1. uncertain what to do; bewildered

   2. rendered helpless (for lack of something)

      at a loss for words

   3. at less than the cost of buying, producing, or maintaining (something)

      the business ran at a loss for several years

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loss More Idioms  

1. see at a loss; cut one's losses; dead loss.

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• preloss
  noun

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• losses
  plural

Etymology

Origin of loss

First recorded before 900; Middle English; Old English los “destruction”; cognate with Old Norse los “looseness, breakup”; cf. lose ( def. ), loose ( def. ), -less ( def. ), lorn ( def. )

Explanation

If you no longer have something, you experience a loss, like the loss of a favorite sock. When something lessens, or gets smaller, that's also a loss, as in weight loss. Loss has lots of opposites that help define what it means. It is the opposite of win, gain, found, or earn. You can take a loss in a game or a race or by misplacing or just plain losing something like a cell phone or money. When a business has more expenses than it can cover in sales, that, too, is called a loss. A difficult loss is when a friend, relative, or pet dies.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

loss losses

“We are deeply heartbroken by the loss of our beloved Fiona,” Lowe, the Emmy-winning star of “Life Goes On,” and his family said in a Sept. 29 statement announcing Fiona’s death.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 9, 2026

He links this to a variety of factors including economic uncertainty, the impact of social media and loss of youth services.

From BBC ● Oct. 9, 2026

Related: Taking Ozempic and worried about vision loss?

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 9, 2026

The ritual power of bogland offerings signified an investment rather than a loss of wealth.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 9, 2026

Howie Hubler’s loss was the result of a simple bet.

From "The Big Short" by Michael Lewis

“Boy, I’ve been so disappointed before with losses, but this was disappointing,” Jones told reporters after the game.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 9, 2026

But, while an increased appetite for risk means the wins can be greater - so can the losses.

From BBC ● Oct. 9, 2026

But tit-for-tat tariffs between the world's two biggest economies caused billions in US agriculture export losses between 2018 and 2019.

From Barron's ● Oct. 9, 2026

Any extreme single-day moves in an underlying stock could wipe out a leveraged fund’s equity, leaving the counterparty exposed to losses.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 7, 2026

The losses announced by the big Wall Street firms on subprime mortgage bonds had started huge and kept growing.

From "The Big Short" by Michael Lewis

Related Words

• accident
• casualty
• catastrophe
• cost
• damage
• debt
• defeat
• deficit
• destruction
• disaster
• failure
• fall
• injury
• markdown
• trouble