off the record
"off-the-record" is a 12-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“off the record” 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
- 14
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Not for publication.
Corpus desk
Index EN-off-the-record · off the record · English
off the record · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 14 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 record |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Prep_phrase |
| Letters | 14 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “off the record” in English
Rare enough to double-check
off the record is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as aprep_phrase. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for off the record, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.
This headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, so its spelling is best explained by sound-to-letter mapping rather than etymology. The correct English form is off the record, spelled O-F-F- -T-H-E- -R-E-C-O-R-D.
Definition
- 1Not for publication.
- 2Unofficial.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how off the record appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
RAIL spoke to many people in the course of our investigation - all off-the-record^([sic]), as no one wished to be quoted.
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.