From Middle English lone, lane, from Old Norse lán, from Proto-Germanic *laihną, from Proto-Indo-European *leykʷ-.

Cognate with Icelandic lán, Swedish lån, Danish lån, German Lehen, Dutch leen, Western Frisian lien, Northern Frisian leen, Scots lane, lain, len, Old English lǣn. More at lend.

• (British) IPA: /ləʊn/
• (America) IPA: /loʊn/

loan (plural loans)

1. (law, banking, finance) An act or instance of lending, an act or instance of granting something for temporary use.

   Synonyms: loaning, lending

   Because of the loan that John made to me, I was able to pay my tuition for the upcoming semester.

2. (law, banking, finance) A sum of money or other property that a natural or legal person borrows from another with the condition that it be returned or repaid over time or at a later date (sometimes with interest).

   Synonyms: principal

   All loans from the library, whether books or audio material, must be returned within two weeks.

   He got a loan of five thousand pounds.

   • 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter II, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC ↗:

     That the young Mr. Churchills liked—but they did not like him coming round of an evening and drinking weak whisky-and-water while he held forth on railway debentures and corporation loans. Mr. Barrett, however, by fawning and flattery, seemed to be able to make not only Mrs. Churchill but everyone else do what he desired.

3. The contract and array of legal or ethical obligations surrounding a loan.

   He made a payment on his loan.

4. The permission to borrow any item.

   Thank you for the loan of your lawn mower.

• French: prêt, emprunt, crédit
• German: Anleihe, Darlehen, Kredit
• Italian: prestito (small sum), mutuo (big amount/long term), credito
• Portuguese: empréstimo
• Russian: заём
• Spanish: préstamo

• French: contrat de prêt
• German: Darlehensvertrag
• Italian: prestito small sum, mutuo big amount/long term
• Portuguese: empréstimo
• Russian: заём
• Spanish: préstamo, empréstito

loan (loans, present participle loaning; simple past and past participle loaned)

1. (usually ditransitive, US, dated and occasionally, proscribed in UK, informal) To lend (something) to (someone).
   • 1820 May 31, William King, Letters to James Monroe: President of the United States, from William King:

     In the course of a correspondence that passed between us at this period, he mentioned, to my utter astonishment, the fact of his having loaned Neilson 81000 to buy my bill on Maryland; and stated that he could not proceed to make the payment until Neilson refunded the money.

• French: prêter
• German: ausleihen, leihen
• Italian: prestare
• Portuguese: emprestar
• Russian: ссужа́ть
• Spanish: prestar