loses

Loses is the third-person singular present tense form of the verb lose. It is used with he, she, it, or singular nouns to indicate failing to keep, retain, or win something, or to misplace it. For example, she loses her keys often, and the team loses the game.

The verb lose has several common senses. It can mean to misplace or fail to keep track of something (lose an object, lose one's place). It can also mean to fail to win or to fail to gain or retain something desired (lose a match, lose money, lose weight, lose face). In addition, lose can be used in idiomatic expressions such as lose ground, lose track, lose hope, or lose sleep. Grammatically, loses is the present tense form; lose is the base form; lost is the simple past and past participle; losing is the present participle.

Pronunciation and spelling notes help distinguish lose from similar words. loses is pronounced with a z-like sound after the vowel, roughly as "LOH-ziz" in standard English. It is not to be confused with loose, which means not tight and is pronounced differently.

Etymology traces lose to Old English losian, meaning to perish or be lost, and it is related to the English noun loss. The form loses shares this root with related Germanic languages, where equivalents describe similar ideas of misplacing, failing to retain, or failing to win.

See also: loss, losing, lost, losing idioms.