loaf
n. countablen. a single piece of bread that has been baked in one shape and can be sliced. You usually buy it whole and cut it into pieces at home.
n. a shaped mass of bread or other food baked in one piece. Often used as a unit of measurement for bread products.
I bought a fresh loaf of bread from the bakery.
She sliced the entire loaf to make sandwiches for the children's school lunches.
The artisanal bakery produces a sourdough loaf that requires a forty-eight-hour fermentation process to achieve its characteristic airy texture and thick, dark crust.
Etymology tree Proto-Germanic *hlaibaz Proto-West Germanic *hlaib Old English hlāf Middle English lof English loaf From Middle English laf, lof, loof, from Old English hlāf (“bread; loaf”), from Proto-West Germanic hlaib, from Proto-Germanic *hlaibaz (“bread; loaf”), of uncertain origin. Perhaps related to Old English hlifian (“to stand out prominently, tower up”). Cognates Cognate with German Laib (“loaf”), Danish and Swedish lev (“loaf”), Faroese leivur (“an oblong bun”), Icelandic hleifur (“loaf”), Norwegian Nynorsk leiv (“loaf”), Gothic 𐌷𐌻𐌰𐌹𐌱𐍃 (hlaibs), 𐌷𐌻𐌰𐌹𐍆𐍃 (hlaifs, “bread”) (whence Proto-Slavic *xlěbъ (“bread”) (see there for further descendants)), Estonian leib (“black bread”), Finnish leipä (“bread; loaf”); also Latvian klaips (“loaf”), Lithuanian kliẽpas (“loaf”). Doublet of chleb and khleb. * (brain or head): Rhyming slang, ellipsis of loaf of bread.
Probably a back-formation from loafer.
The plural form is 'loaves'.
two loafs of breadtwo loaves of breadNouns ending in -af or -af often change to -aves in the plural.