at a loss for words
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
Unable to express oneself due to shock or confusion
Literally: without words to say
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
For once he seems to be at a loss for words.
She could see that he was at a loss for words — which was reason enough for her to be pleased with her impetuous decision.
British National Corpus sentence via the MAGPIE corpus (CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-30)
Sources & notes
Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-30; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “at a loss for words” mean?
Unable to express oneself due to shock or confusion Literally: without words to say
Is “at a loss for words” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.