loss
Americannoun
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detriment, disadvantage, or deprivation from failure to keep, have, or get.
to bear the loss of a robbery.
- Antonyms:
- gain
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something that is lost.
The painting was the greatest loss from the robbery.
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an amount or number lost.
The loss of life increased each day.
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the state of being deprived of or of being without something that one has had.
the loss of old friends.
- Synonyms:
- deprivation, privation
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death, or the fact of being dead.
to mourn the loss of a grandparent.
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the accidental or inadvertent losing of something dropped, misplaced, stolen, etc..
to discover the loss of a document.
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a losing by defeat; failure to win.
the loss of a bet.
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failure to make good use of something, as time; waste.
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failure to preserve or maintain.
loss of engine speed at high altitudes.
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destruction or ruin.
the loss of a ship by fire.
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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.
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Military.
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the losing of soldiers by death, capture, etc.
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Often losses. the number of soldiers so lost.
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Insurance. occurrence of an event, as death or damage of property, for which the insurer makes indemnity under the terms of a policy.
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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.
idioms
noun
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the act or an instance of losing
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the disadvantage or deprivation resulting from losing
a loss of reputation
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the person, thing, or amount lost
a large loss
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(plural) military personnel lost by death or capture
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(sometimes plural) the amount by which the costs of a business transaction or operation exceed its revenue
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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
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insurance
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an occurrence of something that has been insured against, thus giving rise to a claim by a policyholder
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the amount of the resulting claim
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uncertain what to do; bewildered
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rendered helpless (for lack of something)
at a loss for words
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at less than the cost of buying, producing, or maintaining (something)
the business ran at a loss for several years
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Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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.
Vocabulary lists containing loss
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.
A preliminary report was published on 12 July last year, finding that just seconds after take-off, fuel-control switches abruptly moved to the "cut-off" position, starving the engines of fuel and triggering total power loss.
From BBC • Jun. 12, 2026
After addressing structural problems such as loss of adhesion and exfoliated paint, the restorers then used reversible techniques -- including watercolour paint -- to "stitch" everything back together, she said.
From Barron's • Jun. 12, 2026
“But we need to be clear: we cannot cut our way out of a funding loss of this magnitude,” the department said in a statement released this week.
From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 12, 2026
When hearing loss in middle age drove him to rely on hearing aids, he credited the affliction with sharpening his awareness of the world around him—and enhancing his art.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 12, 2026
So when she was at a loss for words, the way she was now, that scared him.
From "Night Owls" by A.R. Vishny
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.
