loop
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /luːp/
rhymes: -uːp
homophone: loupe
Forms: form: loops
Etymology: From Middle English loupe (“noose, loop”), earlier lowp-knot (“loop-knot”), of North Germanic origin, from Old Norse hlaup (“a run”), used in the sense of a "running knot", from hlaupa (“to leap”), ultimately from Proto-Germanic *hlaupaną (“to leap, run”). Compare Swedish löp-knut (“loop-knot”), Danish løb-knude (“a running knot”), Danish løb (“a course”). More at leap. The verb is derived from the noun.
Senses: glosses: A length of thread, line or rope that is doubled over to make an opening.
glosses: The opening so formed.
examples: text: Arches, loops, and whorls are patterns found in fingerprints.
glosses: A shape produced by a curve that bends around and crosses itself.
glosses: A ring road or beltway.
examples: text: He can hang out in the back room of the local adult bookstore […] and hope for a stand-up blow-job through the glory hole in the partition of the two booths that show gay loops.
ref: 1979 December 8, anonymous author, “The Small Town”, in Gay Community News, volume 7, number 20, page 5:
glosses: An endless strip of tape or film allowing continuous repetition.
glosses: A complete circuit for an electric current.
topics: computing
engineering
mathematics
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
programming
sciences
glosses: A programmed sequence of instructions that is repeated until or while a particular condition is satisfied.
topics: graph-theory
mathematics
sciences
glosses: An edge that begins and ends on the same vertex.
topics: mathematics
sciences
topology
glosses: A path that starts and ends at the same point.
topics: transport
glosses: A bus or rail route, walking route, etc. that starts and ends at the same point.
examples: text: In 1908 the line was extended to a station called Wood Lane, which was built on a terminal track loop so that trains could turn round and go back the other way, [...]
ref: 2012, Andrew Martin, Underground Overground: A passenger's history of the Tube, Profile Books, →ISBN, page 119:
topics: rail-transport
railways
transport
glosses: A place at a terminus where trains or trams can turn round and go back the other way without having to reverse; a balloon loop, turning loop, or reversing loop.
examples: text: Basingstoke-Exeter will test this. From Salisbury westwards, it's largely single-track since British Rail downgraded it in 1967. There's a ten-mile loop between Templecombe and Yeovil, as well as shorter loops at Chard, Axminster and Honiton.
ref: 2025 February 5, Philip Haigh, “Where track and train integration will be put to the test”, in RAIL, number 1028, page 51:
topics: rail-transport
railways
transport
glosses: A passing loop.
topics: algebra
mathematics
sciences
glosses: A quasigroup with an identity element.
glosses: A loop-shaped intrauterine device.
glosses: An aerobatic maneuver in which an aircraft flies a circular path in a vertical plane.
examples: text: And stop all sight-holes, every loop from whence / The eye of Reason may pry in upon us.
ref: c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Fourth, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene i]:
glosses: A small, narrow opening; a loophole.
glosses: Alternative form of loup (“mass of iron”).
topics: biochemistry
biology
chemistry
microbiology
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
glosses: A flexible region in a protein's secondary structure.
examples: text: Arellano formerly cavorted for the Galicias in the fast-paced National-American Soccer loop.
ref: 1963 September 27, “Italias Vie In Bayonne On Sunday”, in The Jersey Journal, page 17:
topics: hobbies
lifestyle
sports
glosses: A sports league
topics: ball-games
cricket
games
hobbies
lifestyle
sports
glosses: The curved path of the ball bowled by a spin bowler.
Hypernyms: control structure
Hyponyms: sense: Hyponyms of loop (noun)
word: balloon loop
sense: Hyponyms of loop (noun)
word: crossing loop
sense: Hyponyms of loop (noun)
word: endless loop
sense: Hyponyms of loop (noun)
word: event loop
sense: Hyponyms of loop (noun)
word: feedback loop
sense: Hyponyms of loop (noun)
word: for loop
sense: Hyponyms of loop (noun)
word: hanging loop
sense: Hyponyms of loop (noun)
word: infinite loop
sense: Hyponyms of loop (noun)
word: inside loop
sense: Hyponyms of loop (noun)
word: main loop
sense: Hyponyms of loop (noun)
word: message loop
sense: Hyponyms of loop (noun)
word: passing loop
sense: Hyponyms of loop (noun)
word: platform loop
sense: Hyponyms of loop (noun)
word: read-eval-print loop
sense: Hyponyms of loop (noun)
word: reconciliation loop
sense: Hyponyms of loop (noun)
word: reversing loop
sense: Hyponyms of loop (noun)
word: run loop
sense: Hyponyms of loop (noun)
word: self-loop
sense: Hyponyms of loop (noun)
word: span loop
sense: Hyponyms of loop (noun)
word: tight loop
sense: Hyponyms of loop (noun)
word: while loop
Derived terms: A-B loop
adjustable loop
afferent loop syndrome
angler's loop
artillery loop
autoloop
autoregulatory loop
belt loop
blind loop syndrome
boot loop
busy loop
closed loop
closed time loop
close the loop
coloop
compulsion loop
core loop
crossed loop sensor
cryoloop
death loop
do loop
doom loop
do-while loop
earloop
edge loop
endoloop
exoloop
fisherman's loop
foreach loop
fruit loop
ground loop
gunloop
harness loop
hearing loop
hemiloop
Henle loop
Henle's loop
heptaloop
hexaloop
hyperloop
hysteresis loop
induction loop
interloop
intraloop
keep someone in the loop
Latham loop
launch loop
Lebanese loop
Lippes loop
local loop
locker loop
Lofstrom loop
loop de loop
loop-de-loop
loop disconnect dialing
loop diuretic
looper
loopful
loophole
loop hole
loop invariant
loop jump
loop-knot
loopless
looplet
looplight
looplike
loop line
loopline
loop of Henle
loopoid
loop pedal
loop quantum gravity
loop ratio
looptail
loop-the-loop
looptop
loop-top
loop transfer function
loop-window
loopwise
loopy
Möbius loop
Moufang loop
multiloop
Murray loop bridge
nanoloop
octaloop
on loop
open-loop
Orowan loop
outside loop
penalty loop
pentaloop
phase-locked loop
semiloop
service loop
small loop
stagnant loop syndrome
stem-loop
strange loop
subloop
tetraloop
throw for a loop
time loop
toe loop
triloop
ulnar loop
unloop
Varley loop
Wilson loop
Related terms: sense: Terms related to loop (noun)
word: hook-and-loop
sense: Terms related to loop (noun)
word: hook-and-loop fastener
sense: Terms related to loop (noun)
word: in the loop
sense: Terms related to loop (noun)
word: knock for a loop
sense: Terms related to loop (noun)
word: loop antenna
sense: Terms related to loop (noun)
word: loop the loop
sense: Terms related to loop (noun)
word: out of the loop
sense: Terms related to loop (noun)
word: time-loop logic