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say it: loos
loose is an adjective, verb and adverb meaning "not compact or dense in structure or arrangement". It is pronounced /ˈlus/ — loos. It carries 18 recorded senses.
(of a ball in sport) not in the possession or control of any player
“a loose ball”
sport
not officially recognized or controlled
“an informal agreement”
“a loose organization of the local farmers”
lacking a sense of restraint or responsibility
“idle talk”
“a loose tongue”
having escaped, especially from confinement
“a convict still at large”
“searching for two escaped prisoners”
“dogs loose on the streets”
“criminals on the loose in the neighborhood”
Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.
Definitions, synonyms and semantic relations for loose come from Princeton University’s WordNet. The pronunciation comes from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. Commonness is measured against a corpus of everyday English. Full sources and licences.