Loire
//ˈlwɑː(ɹ)// name
name ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
Proper Noun
- 1 The longest river in France, passing (from southeast to northwest) through the departments of Ardèche, Haute-Loire, Loire, Saône-et-Loire, Allier, Nièvre, Cher, Loiret, Loir-et-Cher, Indre-et-Loire, Maine-et-Loire and Loire-Atlantique.
- 2 A department of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, France. Capital: Saint-Étienne.
Synonyms
All synonymsExample
More examples"The Loire is the longest river in France."
Etymology
From French Loire, from Latin Liger, itself borrowed from the native Gaulish name of the river, from *liga (“silt, sediment, deposit, alluvium”) (see also French lie, English lees), from Proto-Celtic *legyā, from Proto-Indo-European *legʰ- (“to lie, lay”), the same source as many words in English such as lie, ledge, etc.
Related phrases
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.