The Greek noun zēmia (ζημία) means loss, damage, forfeit, penalty. It appears four times in the NT: twice in Philippians 3:7–8, where Paul counts all things as 'loss' for the sake of knowing Christ, and twice in Acts 27:10, 21, referring to material loss in a shipwreck.
Paul's use of zēmia in Philippians 3:7–8 is theologically electrifying. He lists his impeccable Jewish credentials — circumcised on the eighth day, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Pharisee, blameless under the law — and then declares: 'I count everything as zēmia because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.' The commercial metaphor is deliberate: Paul has audited his spiritual accounts and reclassified every asset as a loss. The word appears twice for emphasis: he has counted them as loss, and he continues to count them as loss. In Acts, the same word describes the prosaic loss of cargo and ship — highlighting by contrast the infinitely greater stakes of Paul's spiritual reckoning.