noun · 3 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
Sound
Pronunciation
Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.
UK:/lɜːs/
UK:/ˈləʊɪs/
Southern-England:Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
US:/ˈloʊ.əs/
US:/lɛs/
US:/lʌs/
rhymes with -ɜːs
rhymes with -əʊɪs
rhymes with -oʊəs
rhymes with -ʌs
CMU ARPABET:L OW1 AH0 S
Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.
1
noun
Meaning 1
Any sediment, dominated by silt, of eolian (wind-blown) origin.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: countable, uncountable
Topics: geography, geology, natural-sciences
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
2
noun
Meaning 2
Acronym of locally estimated scatterplot smoothing.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: abbreviation, acronym, alt-of
Topics: mathematics, sciences, statistics
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
3
noun
Meaning 3
a fine-grained unstratified accumulation of clay and silt deposited by the wind
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: soil, dirt
History
Etymology
Borrowed from German Löss (“yellowish-gray soil”), from Alemannic German lösch (“loose”). Cognate with German los and English lease.
Across languages
Translations
37 source translations are retained for this English entry.
Belarusian:
лёс
(ljos)
— sediment of eolian origin
Bulgarian:
льос
(ljos)
— sediment of eolian origin
Chinese Cantonese:
黃砂 /黄砂
(wong4 sa1)
— sediment of eolian origin
