Losses

How to spell losses

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce losses

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does losses mean?

1. nounInstances of being deprived of something, or amounts of money, value, or advantage that have been used up or surrendered.

Losses in a sentence

• The company reported heavy financial losses in the final quarter.

• Repeated losses on the trading account forced him to close the position.

Where does losses come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

The singular loss descends from the Old English word 'los', which meant ruin, destruction, or the act of perishing, and it belongs to the same Germanic family as the verb 'lose' (Old English 'losian', to be destroyed or to fail to keep). The Proto-Germanic root behind it carried the sense of loosening, coming apart, or being set free, which is why the ideas of 'loosen' and 'lose' sit so close together. Over the medieval period the noun settled into its modern meaning of something no longer possessed, whether money, a game, or a person. The plural 'losses' simply adds the regular -es ending that English uses after a word ending in a hissing -ss sound, and the resulting double-s in the middle is the small spelling point worth noticing. The word has stayed entirely native English throughout, never borrowed from French or Latin.

How the word is built

• loss (from Old English los: ruin, destruction)
• -es (plural suffix after a final -ss)