slow off the mark

adj

"slow-off-the-mark" is a 14-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“slow off the mark” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency English
17
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - slow to act or react

Corpus desk

Index EN-slow-off-the-mark · slow off the mark · English

slow off the mark · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-MEGA 17 letters
  • VOW-4 4 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-THIN "S" 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 slow off the mark
PropertyValue
Headwordslow off the mark
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechAdjective
Letters17
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “slow off the mark” in English

slow off the marksits beyond the 100,000 most-frequent English words, in the long tail of technical, archaic, or otherwise rare vocabulary where spelling doubt tends to strike hardest.

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

Rare enough to double-check

slow off the mark is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anadjective. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "slow to act or react".

No misspelling variants are generated for slow off the mark in our index, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable English rules. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.

Etymologically, the entry records: From sports races, where the mark in this case is the point from which the racers start. The correct English form is slow off the mark, spelled S-L-O-W- -O-F-F- -T-H-E- -M-A-R-K.

Definition

  1. 1
    slow to act or react

Etymology

From sports races, where the mark in this case is the point from which the racers start.

Antonyms

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 "slow off the mark"?
"slow off the mark" is spelled S-L-O-W- -O-F-F- -T-H-E- -M-A-R-K.
What does "slow off the mark" mean?
As an adjective, "slow off the mark" means: slow to act or react
What is the origin of the word "slow off the mark"?
From sports races, where the mark in this case is the point from which the racers start. See the full etymology section above for more details.
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