Word.ws English Dictionary

loc

UK/ləʊk/US/loʊk/

loc noun: a dreadlock. Also the alternative letter-case form of LOC.

Noun (1)

loc (plural locs)

  1. (informal, plural-normally) A dreadlock.
    • Thinning hair can be especially disconcerting when one is trying to wear 'locs, also known as dreadlocks, which I'd first begun in late 2001. […] I finally fetched the shears and, cringing, cut off each 'loc at the point where new growth was coming in.2020 May 17, Helaine R. Williams, “LET'S TALK: Cutting 'locs good lesson in fulfillment”, in Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
    • Locs are another protective hairstyle that dates back to Africa. This rope-like hairstyle is achieved by matting the hair. Priests of the Ethiopian Coptic religion in 500 BCE wore locs, and the first archaeological evidence of locs comes from East Africa.2021, Nadia E. Brown, Danielle Casarez Lemi, Sister Style: The Politics of Appearance for Black Women Political Elites, New York, NY: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 25

Verb (1)

loc (third-person singular simple present locs, present participle locing, simple past and past participle loced)

  1. (informal, transitive) To style (the hair) in dreadlocks.
    • Dread Head will assist you with temporarily locing your hair.1996, Hype Hair, page 42

Noun (2) capitalized: LOC

LOC (countable and uncountable, plural LOCs or LOC)

  1. (abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of lab on a chip.
  2. (abbreviation, initialism, letter) Initialism of letter of contract.
  3. (abbreviation, dated, initialism, letter, slang) Initialism of letter of comment
  4. (abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of level of consciousness.
  5. (abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of line of credit.
  6. (abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of line of code.
    Synonyms:
    SLOC
  7. (abbreviation) Abbreviation of localizer.
  8. (abbreviation, initialism, space flight) Initialism of loss of crew.
  9. (abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of loss of consciousness.
  10. (abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of loss of control.
    • WARNING: If CSS is not selected immediately for some 2 EO RTLS contingency abort situations, the vehicle may pitch up and out of control, due to the low thrust-to-weight situation and relatively high dynamic pressure. When a second engine fails, the vehicle will pitch up and try to maintain its...2007 February 14, NASA, “4.5.4 RTLS Two-Engine-Out CSS Required”, in Contingency Aborts 21007/31007, archived from the original on 26 Feb 2021, retrieved 04 Jan 2023, page 46
  11. (abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of local organisation committee.

Proper noun capitalized: LOC

LOC

  1. (abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of Library of Congress.
  2. (abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of Line of Control.

Noun (3) capitalized: LoC

LoC (plural LoCs)

  1. (dated, slang) Correspondence, usually a letter, sent to a periodical commenting on either the contents of a previous issue or an earlier letter of comment.
    • The first contributor of an accepted new item (not a COA) is entitled to a free issue, as are all other Good People who send in locs, cartoons, etc.1961 May 6, Fanac, page 1
    • Available for Trade, LoC, Contribution, goodwill (rarely) or even money.1964 January, Les Spinge, page 2
  2. (abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of lines of code.
    Synonyms:
    SLOC

Verb (2) capitalized: LoC

LoC (third-person singular simple present LoCs, present participle LoCcing, simple past and past participle LoCced)

  1. (dated, slang) To write a letter of comment to a periodical.
    • But what happens, since you have spent a couple of weeks with this firm intention to LoC them all in mind, and in many instances you've even check-marked the particular things you want to comment on and thought about just what you want to say, as future issues of fanzines come into your mailbox...1997 December 22, Rich Brown (Dr Gafia), “Re: The Good Ol' 'Write-In' Ballot”, in rec.arts.sf.fandom (Usenet), message-ID <19971222234601.SAA25451@ladder02.news.aol.com>
    Synonyms:
    letterhack

Also used as

loc is also the alternative letter-case form of LOC.

loc is also the clipping of localization.

loc is also the clipping of loco.

Synonyms of loc

Forms of loc

Noun
plurallocs
alternative form'loc
pluralLOCs
pluralLOC
pluralLoCs
alternative formloc
alternative formLOC
Verb
third-person singular presentlocs
present participlelocing
past participleloced
pastloced
third-person singular presentLoCs
present participleLoCcing
past participleLoCced
pastLoCced
Adjective
comparativemore loc
superlativemost loc

Origin of loc

Clipping of dreadlock.

Abbreviation of letter of comment.

Words formed from loc

Phrases with loc

Words that rhyme with loc

42 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about loc

What does loc mean?
Loc means a dreadlock.
What part of speech is loc?
Loc can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce loc?
Loc is pronounced /ləʊk/ (UK).
What is the plural of loc?
The plural of loc is locs.

Words near loc in the dictionary

  1. lobulus
  2. lobuprofen
  3. lobus
  4. lobworm
  5. lobworms
  6. loc
  7. loc'd
  8. loc'd out
  9. loc.
  10. loc. cit.
  11. loca

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: loc (page history and authors); LOC (page history and authors); LoC (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: “loc.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/loc. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.