Meaning & use
Loki
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Meanings
proper nounproperreligion
The clever, shape-shifting trickster god of Norse mythology, who helps and betrays the other gods by turns.
Grammar: Always capitalized and used without 'the': Loki tricked Thor.
Patterns
- Loki and Thor
- the tales of Loki
In the old myths, Loki cut off the goddess Sif's hair as a prank and then had to make amends.
Our teacher explained that Loki is both a friend and an enemy of the gods.
Loki fathered the wolf Fenrir and the serpent Jormungandr in the legends.
proper nounproper
A fictional character based on the Norse god, famous from comics, films and television as a scheming but charming villain.
Grammar: Capitalized and used without an article, like a person's name.
Patterns
- Loki in the movie
Many viewers first met Loki in superhero movies, not in the old stories.
The actor playing Loki won praise for making the villain oddly sympathetic.
Loki in the comics is quite different from the god found in medieval texts.
Common combinations
- Loki the trickster
- Loki the trickster talked his way out of every punishment.
- Norse god Loki
- The Norse god Loki appears in poems written down in Iceland.
- Loki and Thor
- Loki and Thor once travelled together to the land of the giants.
- Loki's children
- Loki's children were feared by all the gods.
- the binding of Loki
- The binding of Loki, beneath a dripping serpent, is one of the grimmest stories.
Synonyms and how they differ
- trickster
- It names a type of mythic figure, whereas Loki is one specific god, so 'trickster' is broader.
- Anansi
- Anansi is the spider trickster of West African and Caribbean folklore, and unlike Loki he usually wins through wit alone.
- Coyote
- Coyote is a trickster in many Native American traditions, and the stories are more comic than Loki's often tragic ones.
Word family
- Lokasenna proper noun
- an Old Norse poem in which Loki insults the gods at a feast
- Lokean noun
- a modern follower of Norse paganism who honors Loki
Commonly confused: Loki or Lucifer?
Loki vs Lucifer
Loki is often wrongly called the Norse devil, but the myths do not cast him as a being of pure evil, and Lucifer belongs to Christian tradition.
Practice
In which tradition does Loki originally appear?
Choose one answer.
Loki comes from Norse mythology, recorded in Icelandic texts. The Greek, Egyptian and Roman options are tempting because those pantheons also feature gods, but Loki is not part of them.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “Loki”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.