lo

See also: Appendix:Variations of "lo"

Languages (58)

Translingual • English

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Translingual

Etymology

Abbreviation of English Lao, from Lao ລາວ (lāo).

Symbol

lo

1. (international standards) ISO 639-1 language code for Lao.

See also

• Wiktionary’s coverage of Lao terms

English

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ləʊ/
• (US) IPA^(key): /loʊ/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Homophones: low, Lowe
• Rhymes: -əʊ

Etymology 1

Inherited from Middle English lo, loo, from Old English lā (“exclamation of surprise, grief, or joy”). Conflated in Middle English with lo! (interjection), a corruption of lok!, loke! (“look!”) (as in lo we! (look we!)). Cognate with Scots lo, lu (“lo”). See also look.

Interjection

lo

1. (archaic) look, see, behold (in an imperative sense).
   • c. 1610-11, William Shakespeare, The Tempest‎, act III, scene ii:

     Caliban: Lo, lo again! Bite him to death, I prithee.

   • 1859, Edward Fitzgerald, The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám: The Astronomer-Poet of Persia, page 1:

     Awake! for Morning in the Bowl of Night,
     Has flung the Stone that puts the Stars to Flight:
     And Lo! the Hunter of the East has caught
     The Sultán's Turret in a Noose of light.

   • first published 1611, reprinted c. 1900, The Bible, King James version, Luke 15:29:

     [...], Lo, these many years do I serve thee, [...].

   • 1925, Charles Henry Brewitt-Taylor, Romance of the Three Kingdoms, translation of original by Luo Guanzhong:

     Emperor Ling went in state to the Hall of Virtue. As he drew near the throne, a rushing whirlwind arose in the corner of the hall and, lo! from the roof beams floated down a monstrous black serpent that coiled itself up on the very seat of majesty. The Emperor fell in a swoon.

   • 1959, Anthony Burgess, Beds in the East (The Malayan Trilogy), published 1972, page 588:

     "Tambi will be here in..." He computed carefully. "... in exactly twenty seconds." And, lo, Tambi appeared at that very moment.

Synonyms

• See Thesaurus:lo

Derived terms

• hallo

Related terms

• lo and behold

Translations

look, see, behold

Bengali: হেরো (bn) (herō) Czech: hle (cs), ejhle (cs), ajta Dutch: aanschouw (nl) Esperanto: jen (eo) Finnish: katso (fi) French: voici (fr), voilà (fr) German: sieh (de), guck (de) Greek: ιδού (el) (idoú) Ancient: ἰδού (idoú) Hebrew: הבט m (habet), הביטי f (habiti), הביטו pl (habitu) Hungarian: íme (hu) Icelandic: sjá (is) Ido: yen (io) Italian: ecco (it) Japanese: ほら (ja) (hora) Latin: ecce Latvian: lūk, āre, re (lv) Polish: oto (pl), ot (pl) Portuguese: ó (pt), contemplai (pt) Russian: вот (ru) (vot), смотри́ (ru) (smotrí), глянь (ru) (gljanʹ), гляди́ (ru) (gljadí) Serbo-Croatian: evo (sh) Spanish: ve (es), ved (es), vea (es), veamos (es), vean (es), mirad (es), he aquí (es) Swedish: skåda (sv), si (sv) Turkish: işte (tr)

Etymology 2

Variant of low.

Adjective

lo (not comparable)

1. Informal spelling of low.

Derived terms

• hi-lo
• lo-cal
• lo-fi
• lo-tech

Related terms

• hi
• mid

Etymology 3

Interjection

lo

1. Clipping of hello.

Alternative forms

• 'lo, 'llo

Etymology 4

Clipping of location.

Noun

lo (plural los)

1. (African-American Vernacular) Clipping of location.

   Ayo, send me your lo.

Etymology 5

Particle

lo

1. Alternative form of lol.

See also

• lo-lo

Etymology 6

Borrowed from Hokkien 囉 / 啰 (--lo͘). Doublet of lor.

Alternative forms

• loh

Pronunciation

• (Singapore) IPA^(key): [ˈloː˧˨]

Particle

lo

1. (Singlish, Manglish, rare or in set phrases) Sentence-final particle denoting finality or completion.

   Synonyms: (Singlish) liao, already

See also

• lo hei

Anagrams

• -ol, OL, Ol., ol, ol'

Achang

Pronunciation

• (Myanmar) /lɔ˧/
• (Lianghe) [lo³¹]
• (Longchuan) [lo³¹]

Noun

lo

1. child

Derived terms

• loloeu
• lonyi

Further reading

• Inglis, Douglas; Sampu, Nasaw; Jaseng, Wilai; Jana, Thocha (2005), A preliminary Ngochang–Kachin–English Lexicon‎, Payap University, page 72

Aragonese

Pronoun

lo

1. him (direct object)

Asturian

Alternative forms

• llo (archaic)

Etymology

Inherited from Vulgar Latin *lo, *illu, from Latin illud, neuter of ille.

Article

lo n sg (masculine el, feminine la, masculine plural los, feminine plural les)

1. (definite) the

Pronoun

lo

1. it (third-person singular neuter direct pronoun)

Basque

Basque Wikipedia has an article on:

lo

Wikipedia ^eu

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /lo/ [lo]

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -o
• Hyphenation: lo

Noun

lo inan

1. sleep

Declension

Declension of lo (inanimate, ending in vowel)

	indefinite	singular	plural
absolutive	lo	loa	loak
ergative	lok	loak	loek
dative	lori	loari	loei
genitive	loren	loaren	loen
comitative	lorekin	loarekin	loekin
causative	lorengatik	loarengatik	loengatik
benefactive	lorentzat	loarentzat	loentzat
instrumental	loz	loaz	loez
inessive	lotan	loan	loetan
locative	lotako	loko	loetako
allative	lotara	lora	loetara
terminative	lotaraino	loraino	loetaraino
directive	lotarantz	lorantz	loetarantz
destinative	lotarako	lorako	loetarako
ablative	lotatik	lotik	loetatik
partitive	lorik	—	—
prolative	lotzat	—	—

Derived terms

• lo egin (“to sleep”)
• logela (“bedroom”)

Further reading

• “lo”, in Euskaltzaindiaren Hiztegia [Dictionary of the Basque Academy] (in Basque), Euskaltzaindia [Royal Academy of the Basque Language]
• “lo”, in Orotariko Euskal Hiztegia [General Basque Dictionary], Euskaltzaindia, 1987–2005

Catalan

Pronunciation

• (Central) IPA^(key): /lu/
• (Valencia) IPA^(key): /lo/
• Rhymes: -o

Etymology 1

Inherited from Vulgar Latin *illu, from Latin illum, accusative of ille.

Pronoun

lo (enclitic, contracted 'l, proclitic el, contracted proclitic l')

1. him (direct object)

Usage notes

• -lo is the full (plena) form of the pronoun. It is normally used after verbs ending with a consonant or ⟨u⟩.

  Has d'ajudar-lo. ― You have to help him.

Declension

Catalan personal pronouns and clitics

			strong/subject	weak (direct object)		weak (indirect object)		possessive
				proclitic	enclitic	proclitic	enclitic
singular	1st person	standard	jo, mi3	em, m’	-me, ’m	em, m’	-me, ’m	meu
		majestic1	nós	ens	-nos, ’ns	ens	-nos, ’ns	nostre
	2nd person	standard	tu	et, t’	-te, ’t	et, t’	-te, ’t	teu
		formal1	vós	us	-vos, -us	us	-vos, -us	vostre
		very formal2	vostè	el, l’	-lo, ’l	li	-li	seu
	3rd person	m	ell	el, l’	-lo, ’l	li	-li	seu
		f	ella	la, l’4	-la	li	-li	seu
		n		ho	-ho	li	-li	seu
plural
	1st person		nosaltres	ens	-nos, ’ns	ens	-nos, ’ns	nostre
	2nd person	standard	vosaltres	us	-vos, -us	us	-vos, -us	vostre
		formal2	vostès	els	-los, ’ls	els	-los, ’ls	seu
	3rd person	m	ells	els	-los, ’ls	els	-los, ’ls	seu
		f	elles	les	-les	els	-los, ’ls	seu
3rd person reflexive			si	es, s’	-se, ’s	es, s’	-se, ’s	seu
adverbial	ablative/genitive			en, n’	-ne, ’n
	locative			hi	-hi

¹ Behaves grammatically as plural.   ² Behaves grammatically as third person.
³ Only as object of a preposition.   ⁴ Not before unstressed (h)i-, (h)u-.

Etymology 2

Inherited from Latin illum, from ille.

Article

lo m (feminine la, masculine plural los, feminine plural les)

1. (archaic or dialectal) the (definite article)

   Tirant lo Blanc. ― Tirant the White.

   Synonym: (standard) el

Etymology 3

Spanish lo.

Article

lo

1. neuter definite article used only before nominalized adjectives: the, that which is. The neutral “lo” is not considered standard in Catalan, and el or other alternatives are used instead.

   Farem lo (el que sigui/allò) necessari ― We will do what is necessary.

   Lo (El) més important ― The most important thing.

Further reading

• “lo”, in Diccionari de la llengua catalana [Dictionary of the Catalan Language] (in Catalan), second edition, Institute of Catalan Studies [Catalan: Institut d'Estudis Catalans], April 2007
• “lo”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2025
• “lo” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “lo” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

Chickasaw

Pronoun

lo

1. I

Chinese

Pronunciation

• Mandarin

  (Pinyin): lō

  (Zhuyin): ㄌㄛ

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• Mandarin
  • (Standard Chinese)⁺
    • Hanyu Pinyin: lō
    • Zhuyin: ㄌㄛ
    • Tongyong Pinyin: lo
    • Wade–Giles: lo¹
    • Yale: lō
    • Gwoyeu Romatzyh: lho
    • Palladius: ло (lo)
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /lɔ⁵⁵/

Noun

lo

1. (neologism, mostly in compounds) Lolita fashion

   lo娘  ―  lo niáng  ―  a girl who regularly dresses in lolita fashion

Derived terms

• lo娘 (lōniáng)
• lo裝 / lo装 (lōzhuāng)

Cornish

Etymology

Inherited from Proto-Brythonic *lluɨɣ, from Proto-Celtic *leigā. Cognate with Breton loa (Vannes dialect loé, lui) and Welsh llwy.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [loː]

Noun

lo f (plural loyow)

1. spoon

Derived terms

• lo an jowl (“trapdoor”)
• lo de (“teaspoon”)
• lo ledan (“ladle”)
• lo salad (“salad server”)
• lo vras (“tablespoon”)
• lo-balas (“trowel”)