Word.ws English Dictionary

loanword

/ˈləʊnˌwɜː(ɹ)d/US/ˈloʊnˌwɝd/

loanword noun: a word directly taken into one language from another one.

Noun

loanword (plural loanwords)

  1. A word directly taken into one language from another one.
    • "Calque" is a loanword with French origins, and "loanword" is a calque with German origins.
    • New words, and particularly loanwords, are simplified, and hence naturalized in American much more quickly than in English. Employé has long since become employee in our newspapers, and asphalte has lost its final e, and manœuvre has become maneuver, and pyjamas has become pajamas.[1921 [1919], H. L. Mencken, chapter 32, in The American Language, 2nd edition, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, →ISBN, →OCLC
    Synonyms:
    borrowing, foreign word, gainword

loanword meaning in Hindi, Urdu, Bengali and Nepali

loanword in Hindi

word taken from another language
आगत शब्द āgat śabd

loanword in Urdu

word taken from another language
دَخِیلِ لَفْظ daxīl-i lafz

loanword in Bengali

word taken from another language
ঋণশব্দ rinośobdo

loanword in Nepali

loanword
आगन्तुक āgantuk
More languagesFewer languages
loanword in Tagalog
salitang hiram
loanword in Arabic
دَخِيل daḵīl, لَفْظ دَخِيل lafẓ daḵīl
loanword in Malay
kata pinjaman
loanword in Indonesian
kata serapan
loanword in Thai
คำยืม kam-yʉʉm
loanword in Vietnamese
từ vay mượn, từ du nhập, từ mượn, từ ngoại lai

Synonyms of loanword

Forms of loanword

pluralloanwords
alternative formloan word

Origin of loanword

A calque of German Lehnwort, equivalent to loan + word. Compare West Frisian lienwurd, Dutch leenwoord, Danish låneord, Swedish lånord, Icelandic lánsorð.

Words formed from loanword

Questions about loanword

What does loanword mean?
Loanword means a word directly taken into one language from another one.
What is loanword in Hindi?
Loanword in Hindi is आगत शब्द (āgat śabd). See Loanword meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is loanword?
Loanword is a noun.
How do you pronounce loanword?
Loanword is pronounced /ˈloʊnˌwɝd/ (US).
What is the plural of loanword?
The plural of loanword is loanwords.

Words near loanword in the dictionary

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

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: loanword (page history and authors); आगन्तुक (Nepali) (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:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-loanword.wav, LL-Q1860 (eng)-PerfectSoundWhatever-loan word.wav.

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