walk away

verb

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

"walk-away" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“walk away” is outside the top-ranked English vocabulary, used as a verb - the kind of word writers most often double-check.

Unranked
below top-frequency English
9
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - To withdraw from a problematic situation.

Key facts for walk away
PropertyValue
Headwordwalk away
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechVerb
Letters9
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Where “walk away” sits in English frequency

walk away 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.

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The English entry for walk away is 9 letters long, classified as a verb. It sits outside the most-frequent rank tiers, which is often why uncommon words generate more spelling variants per reader. Wiktionary records 5 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.

The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for walk away, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable English rules. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.

No documented word history exists for this headword, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct English form is walk away, spelled W-A-L-K- -A-W-A-Y.

Definition

  1. 1
    To withdraw from a problematic situation.
  2. 2
    Of an object, to go missing or be stolen.
  3. 3
    To free oneself from a debt such as a mortgage by abandoning the collateral to the lender. To make a strategic default.
  4. 4
    To survive a challenging or dangerous situation without harm.
  5. 5
    Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see walk, away.

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 "walk away"?
"walk away" is spelled W-A-L-K- -A-W-A-Y.
What does "walk away" mean?
As a verb, "walk away" means: To withdraw from a problematic situation.
What language does "walk away" come from?
"walk away" 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 “walk away”

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

  • The one correct English spelling is W-A-L-K- -A-W-A-Y - 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 FrequencyWords open word-frequency list