loss
noun
Loss — the painful absence left behind when something is gone
Definition
The act of losing someone or something; "everyone expected him to win so his loss was a shock"
In depth
Loss is the act of losing someone or something, the experience of something previously held, present, or counted upon being taken away or rendered absent. The word spans enormous emotional range, from the relatively minor loss of a game to the devastating loss of a loved one, the common thread being the gap left behind where something once was.
Origin
The word descends from Old English los, destruction or loss, related to leosan, to lose, part of an ancient Germanic word family concerned with release, destruction, or letting go. That deep, somewhat violent etymological undercurrent, destruction rather than mere absence, hints at why even small losses can carry disproportionate emotional weight, the word itself rooted in something closer to ruin than simple lack.
Usage examples
"Everyone expected him to win, so his loss was a shock to the entire community."
"Grief, she came to understand, was simply the shape loss takes once the initial shock has worn away."
"The company's loss of its founding partner threatened to unravel decades of careful institutional culture."
How to use it
Loss is essential, universally resonant vocabulary, suiting nearly every register from sports journalism to the deepest elegiac writing, valuable for its capacity to span both minor disappointment and profound, life-altering grief within the same simple word.
Related concepts
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