loess

• löss

Borrowed from German Löss (“yellowish-gray soil”), from Alemannic German lösch (“loose”). Cognate with German los and English lease.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /lɜːs/, /ˈləʊɪs/

  • Audio (Southern England):

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• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈloʊ.əs/, /lɛs/, /lʌs/
• Rhymes: -ɜːs, -əʊɪs, -oʊəs, -ʌs

loess (countable and uncountable, plural loesses)

1. (geology) Any sediment, dominated by silt, of eolian (wind-blown) origin.
   • 1987, Amy Shui, Stuart Thompson, “China and its people”, in Chinese Food and Drink‎^[1], Wayland Publishers, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 4, column 2:

     The Yellow River got its name from the massive amount of fertile loess (yellow earth) which it has deposited in the wheat-growing North China Plain.

   • 2022, Thomas Halliday, Otherworlds, Penguin, published 2023, page 3:

     They blast their sand westwards across the steppe, coating the foothills of the Brooks Range in an icing-sugar dust of the loose, windblown sand-silt mixture known as loess.

• Douglas Harper (2001–2025) “loess”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

• selos, sloes, losse, soles, loses

• loesse

• Hyphenation: loess

loess m (uncountable)

1. (geology) loess (accumulation of wind-blown sediment)

Borrowed from French lœss.

loess n (plural loessuri)

1. loess