turn off
"turn-off" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“turn 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 dismiss; to fire.
Corpus desk
Index EN-turn-off · turn off · English
turn 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 "T" 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 | turn off |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| Letters | 8 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “turn off” in English
Rare enough to double-check
turn off is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as averb. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 8 senses are on record.
No generated misspelling entries exist for turn off in our index, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.
No borrowing history is documented for this entry, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct English form is turn off, spelled T-U-R-N- -O-F-F.
Definition
- 1To dismiss; to fire.
- 2To power down, to switch off, to put out of operation, to deactivate (an appliance, light, mechanism, functionality etc.).
- 3To become deactivated; to become powered down.
- 4To rotate a tap or valve so as to interrupt the outflow of liquid or gas.
- 5To repulse, disgust, or discourage (someone).
- 6To leave a road; to exit.
- 7To turn out; to produce.
- 8To execute by hanging.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how turn off appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
[H]e came to this country in the service of an English gentleman, whom he was obliged to quit through the malice of the valet de chambre, who taking advantage of the young man's being overtaken with liquor on the last St.Andrew's day, turned him off, on the pretext of his being an habitual drunkard.
Turn off the machine and unplug it when you leave.
Antonyms
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.