off

abbrev

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

The verdict

“off” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #4,224) as an abbreviation. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.

#4,224
frequency rank, German
1,007
“O” headwords
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - offline

Corpus desk

Index DE-off · off · German

off · rank #4,224 · 0 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-COMMON #4,224
  • LEN-MID 3 letters
  • VOW-1 1 vowel
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 1,007
  • PHOTO-FINISH plant

Nearest frequency peer: plant (+1 rank slots)

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Häufigkeitsnachbarn des Verwechslers „off“

Peers mit ähnlichem Corpus-Gewicht, getrennt von den Verwechslungspaaren unten

corpus weight

What this shows Balken platzieren „off“ gegen die nächsten gerankten deutschen Lemmata, kein Reprint der Verwechslungsdesk.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

off vs oh
33% similar
off vs ok
33% similar
off vs on
33% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for off
PropertyValue
Headwordoff
LanguageGerman
Part of speechAbbreviation
Letters3
Frequency rank#4,224
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Corpus-Rang neben Verwechslern von „off“

Diese Skala geht vom Kern des Alltagdeutschen (links) bis zum seltenen Langschwanz (rechts).offliegt auf dieser Marke:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Die Skala ist logarithmisch (jeder Tick ≈ 10× seltener). Peers derselben Seltenheitsbandbreite: „plant“ (#4,225), „nebenbei“ (#4,222), „power“ (#4,226). Unter 1,007 „O“-Lemmata liegt „off“ bei #4,224. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Easy to mix with look-alikes

The spelling risk for off is neighbouring look-alikes ("oh", "ok", …), not just typos; it is anabbreviation. Frequency #4,224 among 1,007 “O” headwords. Gloss: "offline".

Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for off, suggesting the orthography follows predictable German patterns. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "oh", "ok", "on", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.

This headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, so its spelling pattern is best understood through pronunciation rather than a traceable origin. The correct German form is off, spelled O-F-F.

Definition

  1. 1
    offline

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how off appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. „Sorry, ich bin mal off.“
  2. In diesem Urlaub bin ich vollkommen off.

Antonyms

on

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 German corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "off"?
"off" is spelled O-F-F.
What does "off" mean?
As an abbreviation, "off" means: offline
What words are commonly confused with "off"?
"off" is commonly confused with "oh", "ok", "on". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
What language does "off" come from?
"off" is a German word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar German words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "off", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked German headwords with 3 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

Leo#4,217CO2#4,186Wut#4,174Rio#4,154

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list