LATIN DICTIONARYLexicon Latīnum
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“lose” in Latin

Riddle & Arnold A Copious and Critical English–Latin Lexicon, 1864

lose
amittere (of a thing which goes from our possession, and which is missed, as ἀποβάλλειν; opposed to retinere. Amittere is also the proper word for “to lose anyone by death”): perdere (so that a thing ceases to be, or to be good for anything, as διολλύναι; opposed to servare; to lose in play, with or without an accusative of the thing lost): deperdere aliquid de, or ex (to lose a portion of): alicujus rei jacturam facere (to suffer the loss of): privari aliqua re (to be deprived of): orbari aliquo or aliqua re (especially by death; also, to lose anything which contributes to our health or well-being): capi aliqua re (of the parts of the body, or the mental faculties; e.g., oculo, auribus, mente): to lose leaves (of trees), folia deperdere; foliis nudari: to lose one’s head, vita privari: to lose one’s senses, a mente deseri: to lose one’s horse in battle, equum acie sub feminibus amittere: to lose color, colorem mutare (general term): pallescere, expallescere (to grow pale): he loses color, color ei immutatur: to lose one’s life, vitam amittere (☞ not animam amittere): to lose hope, spem perdere; spe orbari, excidere, or dejici: to lose patience, patientiam rumpere or abrumpere: to lose one’s labor, operam perdere: to lose time, temporis jacturam facere (to employ time to no purpose): tempus perdere (to waste time, not to employ it): to have no time to lose, morandi tempus non habere: to lose one’s way, deerrare itinere: to lose one’s course (at sea), cursum non tenere: to lose sight of land, e conspectu terrae auferri: to lose sight of anyone, aliquem e conspectu amittere; aliquis ex oculis meis abiit, or e conspectu meo abscessit (PROP.): not to lose sight of anything, aliquid nunquam dimittere (figuratively): to lose one’s good opinion, apud aliquem de existimatione sua deperdere: a mountain loses itself in the plain, mons in planitiem se subducit, or in planitiem paullatim recedit; septimum Danubii os paludibus hauritur (Tac., loses itself in). To be lost, amitti; abire; decedere; perdi; perire; absumi: the art is lost, ars exolevit: to give up for lost, desperare de aliqua re: I am lost, occidi; perii: to be lost in thought, in cogitatione defixum esse.

Quick answer

What is the Latin word for lose?
The usual Latin words for “lose” are āmittō, perdō, oculus; also auris, mēns. The right choice depends on the sense; see the distinctions below.

Entry from J. E. Riddle & T. K. Arnold, A Copious and Critical English–Latin Lexicon (rev. C. Anthon, New York: Harper, 1864), digitised by Fergus J. P. Walsh, CC BY-SA 4.0; Latin markup adapted by latindictionary.co.