lough

Borrowed from Irish loch (from Old Irish loch), from Proto-Celtic *loku (“lake, pool”), from Proto-Indo-European *lókus (“pond, pool”). Doublet of loch and Looe.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /lɒx/, /lɒk/

• Audio (GA)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɒx, -ɒk
• Homophone: loch

lough (plural loughs)

1. (Ireland) A lake or long, narrow inlet, especially in Ireland.
   • 2009 January 26, Henry McDonald, “It's got fancy flats, a hotel. Even a bank. But can the Titanic Quarter stay afloat?”, in The Guardian‎:

     Outside, a freezing wind whips across Belfast lough […] .

   • 2023 August 23, Tommy Greene, “Lough Neagh ‘dying in plain sight’ due to vast algal blooms”, in The Guardian‎, →ISSN:

     A study showing that the temperature of the lough’s water has risen 1C since 1995, however, suggests that climate change and clearer waters as a result of an invasive zebra mussel species may also be contributing factors.

• loch (in Scotland)

From Middle English lough, luh, borrowed from Cumbric *luch, derived from Proto-Brythonic *luch, from Proto-Celtic *lokus (“lake, pool”).

• (UK) IPA^(key): /lɒf/
• Rhymes: -ɒf

lough (plural loughs)

1. (Northumbria, Cumbria) lake, pool

• ghoul

• loch, louche
• luh (Northumbrian)

From a Celtic language.

lough (plural loughs)

1. lake
2. loch

• English: lough, loch
• Scots: loch

• “lough, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.