different between loss vs mischief

English

Etymology 1

From Middle English los, from Old English los (“damage, destruction, loss”), from Proto-Germanic *lus? (“dissolution, break-up, loss”), from Proto-Indo-European *lews- (“to cut, sunder, separate, loose, lose”). Cognate with Icelandic los (“dissolution, looseness, break-up”), Old English lor, forlor (“loss, ruin”), Middle High German verlor (“loss, ruin”). More at lose.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /l?s/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /l?s/
• (cot–caught merger, Canada) IPA^(key): /l?s/
• Rhymes: -?s, -??s

Noun

loss (countable and uncountable, plural losses)

1. (countable) The result of no longer possessing an object, a function, or a characteristic due to external causes or misplacement.

   Antonym: gain

2. (uncountable) The destruction or ruin of an object.
3. (countable) Something that has been destroyed or ruined.

4. (countable) Defeat; an instance of being defeated.

   Antonyms: win, victory

5. (countable) The death of a person or animal.

6. (uncountable) The condition of grief caused by losing someone or something, especially someone who has died.

7. (financial, countable) The sum an entity loses on balance.

   Antonym: profit

8. (engineering) Electricity of kinetic power expended without doing useful work.

Usage notes

• The possessive of loss is often constructed as loss of rather than 's loss.
• loss is often the subject of the verbs make or take. See Appendix:Collocations of do, have, make, and take

Derived terms

Related terms

• lose

Translations

Etymology 2

Pronunciation spelling of lost, representing African-American Vernacular English.

Verb

loss

1. (colloquial) Alternative spelling of lost

Anagrams

• SOLs, Sols, sols

Estonian

Etymology

Borrowed from German Schloss.

Noun

loss (genitive lossi, partitive lossi)

1. castle

Declension

This noun needs an inflection-table template.

Norwegian Bokmål

Verb

loss

1. imperative of losse

Swedish

Etymology

Like Danish los and Norwegian loss, from Low German or Dutch los, from Middle Low German respectively Middle Dutch los, sidoform of Low German l?s respectively Dutch loos, cognate with Swedish lös.

Adjective

loss

1. (indeclinable, predicatively, adverbially) loose, untied, off

Anagrams

• sols

English

Etymology

From Middle English myschef, meschef, meschief, mischef, from Old French meschief, from meschever (“to bring to grief”), from mes- (“badly”) + chever (“happen; come to a head”), from Vulgar Latin *capare, from Latin caput (“head”)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?m?st??f/, /?m??t??f/
• Rhymes: -?st??f

Noun

mischief (countable and uncountable, plural mischiefs)

1. (uncountable) Conduct that playfully causes petty annoyance.

   Synonyms: delinquency, naughtiness, roguery, scampishness; see also Thesaurus:villainy, Thesaurus:mischief

2. (countable) A playfully annoying action.

3. (collective) A group or a pack of rats.
   • 2014, G. W. Rennie, The Rat Chronicles, iUniverse ?ISBN, page 21

     Kirac, the leader of the rats under his charge, speaks to the major through his telepathic abilities that manifested after the alien virus infected him and his mischief of rats.

   • 2015, Rachel Smith, John Davidson, Rats For Kids, Mendon Cottage Books ?ISBN, page 6

     A group of rats is not a herd or a gaggle, but a pack or a mischief of rats. Rats in general are omnivorous, meaning they will eat almost anything.

4. (archaic) Harm or injury:
   1. (uncountable) Harm or trouble caused by an agent or brought about by a particular cause.
      • 1815, Jane Austen, Emma, Volume I, Chapter 8:

        Vanity working on a weak head, produces every sort of mischief.
   2. (countable) An injury or an instance of harm or trouble caused by a person or other agent or cause.

5. (law) A criminal offence defined in various ways in various jurisdictions, sometimes including causing damage to another's property.
6. (archaic, countable) A cause or agent of annoyance, harm or injury, especially a person who causes mischief.

   Synonyms: bad boy, knave, rapscallion, rascal, rogue; see also Thesaurus:villain, Thesaurus:troublemaker
7. (euphemistic) The Devil; used as an expletive.
   • 1967, The Statesman (volume 12, page 260)

     What the mischief are you? and how the mischief did you get here, and where in thunder did you come from?

8. (Australia) Casual and/or flirtatious sexual acts.

Synonyms

• (harm or injury): agitation, annoyance, corruption, damage, demolition, destruction, detriment, disablement, disruption, evil, harm, hurt, ill, impairment, incapacitation, injury, nuisance, pique, ravage, sabotage, scathe, trouble, undoing, unmaking, vexation, weakening, wrong

Derived terms

Translations

Further reading

• mischief at OneLook Dictionary Search
• Mischief in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)

Middle English

Noun

mischief

1. Alternative form of myschef