pick off
"pick-off" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“pick 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
- 8
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - To remove by picking.
Corpus desk
Index EN-pick-off · pick off · English
pick off · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-LONG 8 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "P" 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 | pick off |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| Letters | 8 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “pick off” in English
Rare enough to double-check
pick off is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as averb. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 5 senses are on record.
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for pick off, a sign its spelling follows regular English conventions. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.
Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct English form is pick off, spelled P-I-C-K- -O-F-F.
Definition
- 1To remove by picking.
- 2To dispose of tasks, obstacles, opponents etc. precisely, one by one.
- 3To dispose of tasks, obstacles, opponents etc. precisely, one by one.
- 4To throw out a runner by tagging them whilst they are not in contact with any of the three bases or home plate.
- 5To intercept, such as a ball in flight.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how pick off appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Before you recycle the bottle you need to pick off the label.
Let's pick off these issues starting from the top.
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.