out of the woods

prep_phrase

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

"out-of-the-woods" is a 13-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“out of the woods” 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
16
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Out of peril; likely to recover or prevail over trouble; finished with the worst or most threatening part of a problem or illness.

Key facts for out of the woods
PropertyValue
Headwordout of the woods
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechPrep_phrase
Letters16
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Where “out of the woods” sits in English frequency

out of the woods falls 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 the woods 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 out of the woods, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.

Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, so its spelling is best explained by sound-to-letter mapping rather than etymology. The correct English form is out of the woods, spelled O-U-T- -O-F- -T-H-E- -W-O-O-D-S.

Definition

  1. 1
    Out of peril; likely to recover or prevail over trouble; finished with the worst or most threatening part of a problem or illness.
  2. 2
    Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see out of, the, woods.

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 the woods"?
"out of the woods" is spelled O-U-T- -O-F- -T-H-E- -W-O-O-D-S.
What does "out of the woods" mean?
As a prep_phrase, "out of the woods" means: Out of peril; likely to recover or prevail over trouble; finished with the worst or most threatening part of a problem or illness.
What language does "out of the woods" come from?
"out of the woods" is a English word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
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.

Using “out of the woods”

The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.

  • The one correct English spelling is O-U-T- -O-F- -T-H-E- -W-O-O-D-S - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
  • Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source

Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list