Lay off or layoff?
lay off is a verb meaning “(of an employer) To dismiss (workers) from employment, e.g. at a time of low…”; layoff is a noun meaning “A dismissal of employees from their jobs because of tightened budgetary…”. Use lay off as a verb and layoff as a noun. lay off is written as two words and layoff as one word; they are used differently.
What is the difference between lay off and layoff?
| lay off | layoff | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | verb, noun | noun |
| Meaning | US(of an employer) To dismiss (workers) from employment, e.g. at a time of low business volume or through no fault of the worker, often with a severance package To place all or part of a bet with another bookmaker in order to reduce risk | USA dismissal of employees from their jobs because of tightened budgetary constraints or work shortage (not due to poor performance or misconduct) A period of time when someone is unavailable for work |
| Example | Lay off the singing, will you! I'm trying to study | none recorded |
| Forms | none | layoffs |
| Pronunciation | not recorded | not recorded |
| In writing | not counted (the list counts single words) | about once in every 2 million words |
Sources: lay off and layoff in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of lay off and layoff
lay off
- 1
US(of an employer) To dismiss (workers) from employment, e.g. at a time of low business volume or through no fault of the worker, often with a severance package
- 2
Alternative spelling of layoff
- 3
To place all or part of a bet with another bookmaker in order to reduce risk
- 4
To cease, quit, stop (doing something)
Lay off the singing, will you! I'm trying to study
- 5
To stop bothering, teasing, or pestering someone; to leave (someone) alone
Just lay off, okay! I've had enough!
- 6
In painting, to apply gentle strokes to smooth a wet coat of paint so as to remove visible roller- or brush-marks, commonly using a dry brush; a similar technique, but using a loaded laying-off…
At any pro paint shop ask for laying off brushes. These are natural bristle, wide, thin brushes designed for tipping off, not for holding a paint load. (Sourced from a web forum…
- 7
To plan out (a navigational course) using a chart
layoff
- 1
USA dismissal of employees from their jobs because of tightened budgetary constraints or work shortage (not due to poor performance or misconduct)
- 2
A period of time when someone is unavailable for work
- 3
UKA short pass that has been rolled in front of another player for them to kick
- 4
A bet that is laid off, i.e. placed with another bookmaker in order to reduce risk
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, lay off or layoff?
lay off is a phrase, which the list of single words does not count; layoff about once in every 2 million words.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How many people search lay off vs layoff?
“lay off vs layoff” is searched about 20 times a month on Google and 10 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“layoff vs lay off”, “lay off or layoff”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.