Loss vs. Lost: Which Is Which?
Quick summary
The word lost is used as the past tense and past participle form of the irregular verb lose. Lost can also be used as an adjective to mean “unable to be found” or “having gone astray.” The word loss is only used as a noun. It has several meanings, which include “something that is lost,” “death,” and “a failure to win.”
The irregular verb lose is often the source of confusion. People may get stuck when it comes to differentiating lose from loss and lose from loose. However, the problems don’t end there. It can also be easy to confuse the word lost (the past tense of lose) with the word loss, too.
In this article, we will break down the difference between lost and loss, explain how these words are used differently, and provide examples of how we typically use lost and loss in sentences.
When to use loss or lost
The word lost is the past tense and past participle form of the irregular verb lose. It is the form needed when using lose in the past tense and perfect tenses and when using lose in the passive voice.
For example:
- Past tense: I lost my keys yesterday.
- Present perfect tense: Tiffany has lost her dog, and we are helping her find him.
- Passive voice: The book was lost by a clumsy librarian.
The word lost is also used as an adjective to refer to something that can’t be found or to someone that has gone astray.
For example:
- They are hunting for the lost city of Atlantis.
- The park ranger found the lost children sheltering in a cave.
The word loss is only used as a noun, and it has several different meanings. Some of the meanings of loss include the following:
- Something that is lost: The gambler tried to recover his loss by betting big on the jackpot.
- A failure to win: The Quakeville Rumblers suffered another tough loss last night.
- The state of not having something once had: His whole life changed after the loss of his arm from the car accident.
Is it sorry for your loss or sorry for your lost?
The correct form of this expression is sorry for your loss. This expression is typically used to express sympathy to someone who is mourning a death. This expression uses the noun loss in the sense of “death” rather than lost, which wouldn’t make sense in this context.
lost vs. lossed
The term lossed may result from someone hearing the word lost spoken out loud and mistakenly transcribing it as lossed. Alternatively, someone may not know how to conjugate the verb lose and mistakenly use lossed, losed, or another incorrect past tense or past participle form.
Lossed is not considered to be a word in the English language. The word loss is not a verb, so it wouldn’t use the –ed suffix that past tense verbs do. Lossed is also not used as the past tense or past participle form of the verb lose. The only past tense and past participle form of lose is lost.
Examples of loss and lost used in a sentence
To make sure we aren’t lost, let’s find our way by exploring how we typically use loss and lost in sentences.
- Having their biggest pop star sign with the rival studio was a huge loss for the company.
- We took a wrong turn and got lost in the woods for an hour.
- The army suffered heavy losses due to disease and starvation.
- The firefighters found the lost cat sleeping in a tree.
- The boxer lost his world championship following the surprising loss to the rookie fighter.
- A loss of a parent can cause many children to feel lost in life.
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