nod off
"nod-off" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“nod 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
- 7
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - To fall asleep, especially unintentionally.
Corpus desk
Index EN-nod-off · nod off · English
nod off · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-LONG 7 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "N" 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.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | nod off |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| Letters | 7 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “nod off” in English
Rare enough to double-check
nod off is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as averb. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "To fall asleep, especially unintentionally.".
Zero misspellings are on record for nod off in our index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
Our source data has no etymology on file for this entry, so any spelling logic here comes from how the word's sounds map to letters, not a documented origin story. The correct English form is nod off, spelled N-O-D- -O-F-F.
Definition
- 1To fall asleep, especially unintentionally.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how nod off appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
The old lady nodded off to sleep many times during the narration, only waking up when George paused, saying it was most interesting.
I dragged him to the house, / And gave him tea and tried to make him smoke. / I tried to make him talk about his travels. / Nothing would do: he just kept nodding off.
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.