Word.ws English Dictionary

on loan

on loan adjective: loaned or lent, not owned.

Adjective

on loan (not comparable)

  1. Loaned or lent, not owned.
    • An ex-L.S.W.R. 0-6-0 goods engine, No. 0395, and a "Terrier" tank-engine, No. 2678, are now on loan.1947 May and June, “Notes and News: The Kent & East Sussex Railway Today”, in Railway Magazine, page 182
    • Shortly thereafter Sugarman learned that the technology behind the pricey sunglasses wasn't on loan from NASA.2002, Lou Harry, Sam Stall, As Seen on TV, →ISBN

Adverb

on loan (not comparable)

  1. Loaned or lent.
    • She worked on loan from another agency.

Examples of on loan in a sentence

  • As you generate your list of references check whether your library holds the books, and if so whether they are on loan.2003, Nicholas Clifford, Gill Valentine, Key Methods in Geography, →ISBN, page 27:
  • Bowman only hinted it was “on loan” from the Chatham Dockyard, so I didn't ask more.2014, N. Jay Young, A Ship's Tale, →ISBN:

Questions about on loan

What does on loan mean?
On loan means loaned or lent, not owned.
How do you use on loan in a sentence?
As you generate your list of references check whether your library holds the books, and if so whether they are on loan.
What part of speech is on loan?
On loan can be an adjective or an adverb.

Words near on loan in the dictionary

  1. on keel
  2. on leg
  3. on level terms
  4. on like Donkey Kong
  5. on line
  6. on loan
  7. on lobby terms
  8. on location
  9. on long-term sick
  10. on loop
  11. on main

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: on loan (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: “on loan.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/on_loan. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.