off the books
"off-the-books" is a 11-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“off the books” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a prep_phrase. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 13
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - With regard to income, undeclared for taxes and social insurance purposes, etc.
Corpus desk
Index EN-off-the-books · off the books · English
off the books · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 13 letters
- VOW-4 4 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "O" 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 | off the books |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Prep_phrase |
| Letters | 13 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “off the books” in English
Rare enough to double-check
off the books is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as aprep_phrase. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "With regard to income, undeclared for taxes and social insurance purposes, etc.".
off the books doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. Our dataset records no confusable match here, which usually means its spelling is distinct enough that readers don't reach for a similar-looking word instead.
This entry's etymology isn't recorded, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct English form is off the books, spelled O-F-F- -T-H-E- -B-O-O-K-S.
Definition
- 1With regard to income, undeclared for taxes and social insurance purposes, etc.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how off the books appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
His company was fined for paying staff off the books.
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.