Loop

How to spell loop

4 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce loop

What does loop mean?

1. nounA curved or rounded shape formed when a line, rope, or path bends round and meets or crosses itself.
2. verbTo form something into a curved or rounded shape, or to move in such a path.

Loop in a sentence

• noun

  She tied the rope into a neat loop before hanging the bucket.

• verb

  He had to loop the cable around the post to keep it tidy.

• noun

  The running track formed a wide loop around the playing field.

• verb

  The pilot decided to loop back over the airfield for a second pass.

Where does loop come from?

Language of origin: Celtic

Loop first appears in Middle English in the 1300s, where it referred to a fold or doubling in a rope, cord, or strip of cloth. Its earlier history is genuinely murky, but many scholars connect it to a Celtic source, comparing the Irish and Scottish Gaelic word lub, meaning 'a bend, a fold, or a loop'. From the basic idea of a doubled line that curves back to touch itself, the word broadened to cover any rounded, more or less closed shape, and later picked up technical senses in aviation, electronics, and computing. The spelling stayed pleasingly simple, with the long 'oo' carried by the doubled o, which is why it rarely trips writers up. A useful relative in everyday speech is 'loophole', which originally named a narrow slit in a wall before it came to mean a gap in a rule.

How the word is built

• loop (single root word, no prefix or suffix)