loss
Plurallosses
- 1The fact of no longer having something, or of having less of it, because it has been taken away, destroyed, used up, or mislaid.
The sudden loss of hearing left her struggling to follow conversations.
Companies worry about the loss of skilled workers to their rivals.
UsageUsually loss of something (loss of appetite), or after the thing lost: weight loss, hair loss.
Oppositegain
- 2
- 3The amount of money a company loses overall when its costs exceed its income.
The company posted a quarterly loss of two million dollars.
Repeated losses forced the startup to look for new investors.
UsageCompanies make, post, or report a loss. To sell at a loss is to get less than it cost.
Oppositeprofit
Note
Accounting gives the word an exact meaning: expenses, including taxes, minus total income, counted as a loss only when that difference is positive. It is the precise opposite of profit and appears on the income statement for a stated period.
- 4An instance in which a person or animal dies.
The sudden loss of her father changed everything for the family.
Farmers grieved the loss of livestock during the harsh winter.
UsageCommon in expressions of sympathy after someone has died: I'm sorry for your loss.
- 5The state of grief caused by losing someone or something, especially a person who has died.
The sense of loss lingered for years after his wife's death.
Many people find that loss reshapes how they see the world.
UsageMost often a sense of loss, or on its own, as in living with loss.
Similargrief, bereavement, sorrow, mourning, heartache
Note
Where loss as a death names the event, this sense names what the event leaves behind in the people who remain.
- 6The setback suffered when a person or thing is no longer there; also, someone whose departure is felt as a setback.
If they turn down a deal this good, it's their loss, not ours.
The team's best defender is leaving at the end of the season, and he will be a huge loss.
UsageTwo set phrases: it's their loss, shrugging off a refusal, and a great loss to a team or school.
Similarblow
Oppositegain
- 7Energy or power that is wasted, for example as heat or through friction, instead of doing useful work.
Transmission loss grows over long distances along the cable.
Heat loss from the engine lowers the vehicle's overall efficiency.
UsageOften after the kind or cause of loss: heat loss, transmission loss. The plural is common too: resistive losses, losses on the grid.
Similardissipation, leakage, wastage
Less common meaning
- 8An object that has been destroyed or ruined.
The insurer wrote off the flooded warehouse as a complete loss.
After the flood soaked its engine and seats, the insurance company declared the car a total loss.
UsageUsually a total loss, after be or write off as: the car was a total loss.
Practice
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Origin
From Middle English los, from Old English los ("damage, destruction, loss"), going back through Proto-Germanic *lusą ("dissolution, break-up, loss") to a Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to cut, separate, or loose." It is related to lose.
Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 4 facts
- Loss comes from Middle English los and Old English los, meaning damage, destruction, or loss. en.wiktionary.org
- The ancestry includes Proto-Germanic *lusą, glossed dissolution, break-up, or loss. en.wiktionary.org
- The word ultimately derives from a Proto-Indo-European root meaning to cut, separate, or loose. en.wiktionary.org
- Loss is etymologically related to lose. en.wiktionary.org