Word.ws English Dictionary

loanshifts

loanshifts is the plural of loanshift.

loanshifts is the third-person singular simple present indicative of loanshift.

Meaning of loanshift

Noun

loanshift (countable and uncountable, plural loanshifts)

  1. The situation in which a word changes or extends its meaning under the influence of another language.
    • As linguists, anthropologists, and others involved in translation realize, the boundaries of exchange between languages are not impermeable to loanshift of meanings (Lehiste 1988:20).1998, Jeffrey Anderson, “Ethnolinguistic Dimensions of Northern Arapaho Language Shift”, in Anthropological Linguistics, volume 40, Bloomington, Ind.: Department of Anthropology, Indiana University...
  2. A word whose meaning has changed in this way.

See all 3 meanings of loanshift

Questions about loanshifts

What is loanshifts the plural of?
Loanshifts is the plural of loanshift.

Words near loanshifts in the dictionary

  1. loansharking
  2. loansharks
  3. loanshift
  4. loanshifted
  5. loanshifting
  6. loanshifts
  7. loanword
  8. loanwords
  9. loanworthy
  10. Loar
  11. Loarki

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: loanshifts (page history and authors); loanshift (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.

Last updated:

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