out of control

prep_phrase

"out-of-control" is a 12-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“out of control” 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 under control.

Corpus desk

Index EN-out-of-control · out of control · English

out of control · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-MEGA 14 letters
  • VOW-5 5 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.

Key facts for out of control
PropertyValue
Headwordout of control
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechPrep_phrase
Letters14
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “out of control” in English

out of controlfalls outside the top-100,000 ranked English words, the long-tail zone of technical, archaic, or low-frequency vocabulary, exactly where readers second-guess spellings most.

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

Rare enough to double-check

out of control is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as aprep_phrase. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.

No generated misspelling entries exist for out of control in our index, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.

This headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct English form is out of control, spelled O-U-T- -O-F- -C-O-N-T-R-O-L.

Definition

  1. 1
    Not under control.
  2. 2
    Not controllable.
  3. 3
    Not in control of one's actions.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. The economy is out of control and is headed for a crash.
  2. The correspondence in these columns about locomotive slipping, which has been proceeding for some months past, is tending to get out of control, and it is necessary, despite the interest of the subject, to bring it to a close.

Synonyms

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 "out of control"?
"out of control" is spelled O-U-T- -O-F- -C-O-N-T-R-O-L.
What does "out of control" mean?
As a prep_phrase, "out of control" means: Not under control.
What language does "out of control" come from?
"out of control" is a English word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
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