drop off

verb

"drop-off" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“drop 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
8
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - To fall asleep.

Corpus desk

Index EN-drop-off · drop off · English

drop off · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-LONG 8 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 drop off
PropertyValue
Headworddrop off
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechVerb
Letters8
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “drop off” in English

drop offsits beyond the 100,000 most-frequent English words, in the long tail of technical, archaic, or otherwise rare vocabulary where spelling doubt tends to strike hardest.

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

Rare enough to double-check

drop off is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as averb. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 8 senses are on record.

We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for drop off, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which usually means its spelling is distinct enough that readers don't reach for a similar-looking word instead.

No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. The correct English form is drop off, spelled D-R-O-P- -O-F-F.

Definition

  1. 1
    To fall asleep.
  2. 2
    To deliver; to deposit or leave; to allow passengers to alight.
  3. 3
    To fall off:
  4. 4
    To fall off:
  5. 5
    To end a connection with a telephone queue, either by hanging up or after being served or processed.
  6. 6
    To lessen or reduce.
  7. 7
    To die.
  8. 8
    To abandon or give up on (something); to be abandoned or given up on.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. After two glasses of whiskey, Tom soon dropped off in front of the television.
  2. And when the Boy dropped off to sleep, the Rabbit would snuggle down close under his little warm chin and dream, with the Boy's hands clasped close round him all night long.

This word in other languages

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 "drop off"?
"drop off" is spelled D-R-O-P- -O-F-F.
What does "drop off" mean?
As a verb, "drop off" means: To fall asleep.
What language does "drop off" come from?
"drop off" is a English word. PlainSpell's reference spans five languages -- English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German -- with definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for each.
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.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list