cutoff
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
6 characters
Language
English
word origin
Source
Wiktionary
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "cutoff", 6-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Wiktionary, and usage frequency ranked against an open word-frequency list covering the top 100,000 English words. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "cutoff" includes synonyms, antonyms, homophones, and cross-language translation pointers sourced from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org extract. Whether you are verifying the correct spelling of "cutoff" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
cutoff is aEnglishnoun. It means: The point at which something terminates or to which it is limited. Pronounced /kəˈtɒf/. Often confused with cutout and cuff.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | cutoff |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /kəˈtɒf/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #22,052 |
| Misspellings tracked | 7 |
| Confusable pairs | 2 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for cutoff is 6 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /kəˈtɒf/. Corpus data places it at rank #22,052 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it.Wiktionary records 10 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 7 likely wrong-spelling variants for cutoff, with forms such as "ccutoff", "ctuoff", and "cuotff". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It also participates in 2 confusable-pair relationships, "cutout", "cuff", where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: Deverbal from cut off. Root origin matters for spelling because borrowed morphemes (Greek, Latin, Old French, Old English) carry their source-language orthographic conventions into modern English, which is why historical etymology is often the cleanest predictor of whether a cluster like "-ough", "-eau", or "-tion" will appear. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct English form is cutoff, spelled C-U-T-O-F-F, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1The point at which something terminates or to which it is limited.
- 2The point at which something terminates or to which it is limited.
- 3A road, path or channel that provides a shorter or quicker path; a shortcut.
- 4A device that stops the flow of a current.
- 5A device for saving steam by regulating its admission to the cylinder (see quotation at cut-off).
- 6A cessation in a flow or activity.
- 7The player who acts directly before the player on the button pre-flop.
- 8Shorts made by cutting off the legs from trousers.
- 9A sleeveless shirt, especially one made by cutting the sleeves off of a t-shirt.
- 10A horizontal line separating sections of the page.
Etymology
Deverbal from cut off.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ccutoff,ctuoff,cuotff,cutfof,cutof,cuttoff,uctoff
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for cutoff
Misspelling Variants of "cutoff"
Frequency rank: #22,052 in English
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter C in our English index: