loaf
noun · verb
Simple meaning
A solid block of soap, from which standard bar soap is cut.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
lohfIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈloʊf
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
A solid block of soap, from which standard bar soap is cut.
Any solid block of food, such as meat or sugar.
also loaf of bread
A block of bread after baking.
informalslang
A catloaf.
verb
Be lazy or idle
intransitive
To do nothing, to be idle.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B1 · Intermediate
- Frequency
- Uncommon
- Typical Use
- Neutral / general English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A block of bread after baking.
Used this way, loaf is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. This is a food and cooking use: everyday in kitchens and recipes.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Where it naturally appears
- Cooking/food
- Everyday conversation
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Inflected forms
Grammatical variations of the same word.
Person who does no work.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
A shaped mass of baked bread that is usually sliced before eating.
A large conical loaf of concentrated refined sugar.
Flaked fish baked in a loaf with bread crumbs and various seasonings.
A baked loaf of ground meat.
Fish loaf made with flaked salmon.
A loaf of French bread.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: be lazy or idle
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.