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Recent Examples of loanword
Which brings us to the ménage à trois — for some things, only a French loanword will do — between Hayley, Yasmin, and Henry, which exists at the opposite end of the boundary-setting spectrum.
—
Amanda Whiting, Vulture, 26 Jan. 2026
For instance, people, a French loanword, may be spelled peple, pepill, poeple, or poepul.
—Big Think, 10 Apr. 2025
The newest dictionary additions include loanwords from Southeast Asia, South Africa and Ireland.
—Peter Guo, NBC news, 27 Mar. 2025
In fact, Mandarin itself used thousands of loanwords from Japanese and English when new disciplines such as sociology and natural science entered China’s curricula a mere century ago.
—Tenzin Dorjee, Foreign Affairs, 28 Nov. 2023
During this period, more than 10,000 loanwords from French entered the English language, mostly in domains where the aristocracy held sway: the arts, military, medicine, law and religion.
—Phillip M. Carter, Fortune Well, 12 June 2023
Most English loanwords borrow from languages that, like English, use the Latin alphabet.
—Sarah Bunin Benor, The Conversation, 21 May 2020
With the mega-success of Starbucks and its various coffee competitors, BARISTA has transformed from a somewhat niche Italian loanword to a term most everyone not only knows but uses regularly.
—Ryan P. Smith, Smithsonian Magazine, 31 Dec. 2019
Amanda Whiting, Vulture, 26 Jan. 2026
For instance, people, a French loanword, may be spelled peple, pepill, poeple, or poepul.
—Big Think, 10 Apr. 2025
The newest dictionary additions include loanwords from Southeast Asia, South Africa and Ireland.
—Peter Guo, NBC news, 27 Mar. 2025
In fact, Mandarin itself used thousands of loanwords from Japanese and English when new disciplines such as sociology and natural science entered China’s curricula a mere century ago.
—Tenzin Dorjee, Foreign Affairs, 28 Nov. 2023
During this period, more than 10,000 loanwords from French entered the English language, mostly in domains where the aristocracy held sway: the arts, military, medicine, law and religion.
—Phillip M. Carter, Fortune Well, 12 June 2023
Most English loanwords borrow from languages that, like English, use the Latin alphabet.
—Sarah Bunin Benor, The Conversation, 21 May 2020
With the mega-success of Starbucks and its various coffee competitors, BARISTA has transformed from a somewhat niche Italian loanword to a term most everyone not only knows but uses regularly.
—Ryan P. Smith, Smithsonian Magazine, 31 Dec. 2019
Recent Examples of Synonyms for loanword
Noun
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Are these neologisms diagnosing modern phenomena or illuminating preëxisting cultural realities?—
Brady Brickner-Wood,
New Yorker,
2 Dec. 2025
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These neologisms weren’t just clever.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
24 Nov. 2025
Noun
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The author, a professor named Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw, proved to have a knack not just for provocative legal essays but for coinages, too.—
Kelefa Sanneh,
New Yorker,
4 May 2026
-
People have been called pedants since the early modern period—pedante is a fifteenth-century Italian coinage for a professional teacher of Latin literature and rhetoric—but have been acting pedantically for millennia.—
Clare Bucknell,
The New York Review of Books,
25 Apr. 2026
Noun
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The exhibit’s title is derived from a Spanish colloquialism.—
Uwa Ede-Osifo,
Dallas Morning News,
13 Feb. 2026
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Ways to learn a new language Apps are a good way to learn the basics and proper pronunciation, but many colloquialisms, abbreviations and grammatically informal expressions used by fluent or native speakers aren’t taught on apps or in language classes.—
Cody Godwin,
USA Today,
12 Feb. 2026
Noun
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Special military operation is Russia’s official euphemism for the country’s invasion of Ukraine.—
Ashley Belanger,
ArsTechnica,
30 Apr. 2026
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Discussing why people use euphemisms online prepares children to pause and ask questions when unfamiliar terms appear.—
Sharlette A. Kellum,
The Conversation,
6 Apr. 2026
Noun
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The painting may be the first appearance in art of the American doctrine of Manifest Destiny, a term coined the year before by the newspaperman and diplomat John O’Sullivan.—
Sebastian Smee,
New Yorker,
4 May 2026
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Giuliani floated the idea of changing the law to run for a third term or serving an extra three months to help with a post-9/11 recovery.—
Los Angeles Times,
Los Angeles Times,
4 May 2026
Noun
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These formal approaches are at the core of the history of modernism and continue to animate the practices of countless contemporary artists.—
Maximilíano Durón,
ARTnews.com,
6 May 2026
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That may be why the dominant strains in American modernism (at least until the mid-twentieth century, when the sublime reappeared in the work of the Abstract Expressionists) cleaved to the factual, the intimate, the proximate.—
Sebastian Smee,
New Yorker,
4 May 2026
Cite this Entry
“Loanword.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/loanword. Accessed 10 May. 2026.
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