drift off

Name: drift off, English Word Data
Creator: Wiktionary
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

verb

By PlainSpell · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) · analyzed September 3, 2026

The verdict

“drift off” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency English: 9
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see drift, off.

Corpus desk

Index EN-drift-off · drift off · English

drift off · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
LEN-LONG 9 letters
VOW-2 2 vowels
CONFUS-0 No pairs
VAR-0 0 variants
BOOK-THIN "D" thin
PHOTO-UNK Peer pending

Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern

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.

Key facts for drift off
Property	Value
Headword	drift off
Language	English
Part of speech	Verb
Letters	9
Misspellings tracked	0
Confusable pairs	0
Source	Wiktionary (kaikki.org)

Where “drift off” sits in English frequency

drift offranks outside the top 100,000 English headwords, in the long tail of specialist, archaic, or seldom-used vocabulary, exactly the territory where a reader stops mid-sentence to double-check spelling.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

drift off is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as averb. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.

Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for drift off, a sign its spelling follows regular English conventions. This headword has no recorded confusable partner, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.

No documented word history exists for this headword, so its spelling is easiest explained by how it's pronounced rather than where it came from. The correct English form is drift off, spelled D-R-I-F-T- -O-F-F.

Definition

1
Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see drift, off.
2
To fall asleep slowly.
3
To lose concentration.

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

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

He went to sleep, lying there under a wing of his plane, and presently Bland himself drifted off into dreams.

Synonyms

nod off

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "drift off"?

"drift off" is spelled D-R-I-F-T- -O-F-F.

What does "drift off" mean?

As a verb, "drift off" means: Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see drift, off.

What language does "drift off" come from?

"drift off" is a English word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.

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Data Source

Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.