Word.ws English Dictionary

loopholes

loopholes is the plural of loophole.

loopholes is the third-person singular simple present indicative of loophole.

Meaning of loophole

Noun

loophole (plural loopholes)

  1. (historical) A slit in a castle wall; today, any similar window for shooting a ranged weapon or letting in light.
    • […] and having a fair loophole, as it were, from a broken hole in the tree, he took a sure aim, without being seen, waiting till they were within about thirty yards of the tree, so that he could not miss.1719 May 6 (Gregorian calendar), [Daniel Defoe], The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, […], London: […] W[illiam] Taylor […], →OCLC
  2. (figuratively) A method of escape, especially an ambiguity or exception in a rule or law that can be exploited in order to avoid its effect.
    • Coupling the poor girl's intelligence with my previous knowledge, and the result of our good friend's inquiries on the spot, I left him no loophole of escape, and laid bare the whole villany which by these lights became plain as day.1838, Charles Dickens, chapter 49, in Oliver Twist, page 236

See all 4 meanings of loophole

Phrases with loopholes

Questions about loopholes

What is loopholes the plural of?
Loopholes is the plural of loophole.

Words near loopholes in the dictionary

  1. loopful
  2. loopfuls
  3. loophole
  4. loopholed
  5. loopholery
  6. loopholes
  7. loopholing
  8. loophound
  9. loopie
  10. loopier
  11. loopiest

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: loopholes (page history and authors); loophole (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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Cite this entry: “loopholes.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/loopholes. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.