Word.ws English Dictionary

gainword

gainword noun: a word that a language has borrowed from other languages. In the process, the spelling and pronunciation, and even meaning, may be altered.

Noun

gainword (plural gainwords)

  1. (rare) A word that a language has borrowed from other languages. In the process, the spelling and pronunciation, and even meaning, may be altered.
    • Words comprising a gainword + Maori suffix are entered as run-ons in alphabetical order where there is a root gainword as headword.1995, TP Duval, A preliminary dictionary of Maori gainwords compiled on historical principles
    Synonyms:
    loanword

Synonyms of gainword

Forms of gainword

pluralgainwords

Origin of gainword

From gain + word.

Questions about gainword

What does gainword mean?
Gainword means a word that a language has borrowed from other languages. In the process, the spelling and pronunciation, and even meaning, may be altered.
What part of speech is gainword?
Gainword is a noun.
What is the plural of gainword?
The plural of gainword is gainwords.

Words near gainword in the dictionary

  1. gainstriving
  2. gainstrove
  3. gaintaking
  4. gainward
  5. gainwise
  6. gainword
  7. gainwords
  8. gainworthy
  9. Gainza
  10. Gair
  11. gairaigo

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: gainword (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-gainword.wav.

Cite this entry: “gainword.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/gainword. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.