It’s never fun losing things. My personal bane is my car keys. No matter how many holders or key rings I hang up by the doorway, I always end up losing my keys, and when I need to leave for work, I’m scrambling to find them!
And that’s what I want to talk about today: losing things! Or, at least the words that we use to describe losing things.
If you lose your car keys (like I do), are they lost or loss?
How should I use lost? In most cases, lost is the past tense and past participle of the verb to lose. In other words, you should be using lost as a verb in your writing.
There are many different uses and meanings of lost, but they can be broken down into a few main categories.
Unable to find something > I lost my keys.
Fail to retain > I lost my job.
Fail to win > We lost the game.
There are other figurative uses of lost, too.
In addition to its use as a verb, lost can also function as an adjective where it means unable to find one’s way or unable to be found.
Sally solved the mystery of the lost TV remote.
Lost can be found in a number of common phrases that you are likely to hear in speech or read in books. Let’s go over a few.
Get lost! > Meaning: Informal and rude way to tell someone to leave.
All is not lost > Meaning: There is still hope. Don’t give up.
A lost cause > Meaning: No hope.
How should I use loss? Unlike lost, which can function as multiple parts of speech, loss is only ever used as a noun, so it’s meaning a little more restricted.
The fact or process of losing > The team had three losses last week.
An amount of money lost by a business or organization > I had to sell these products at a loss.
Lost is also used a few commonly used phrases. Let’s go over them, so you’re familiar with them.
At a loss > Meaning: to be puzzled or confused.
As a loss for words > Meaning: Not sure what to say from a surprise or shock.
Since these are different parts of speech, you’ll want to know how these words differ from each other and how to use them correctly. They are never interchangeable.