work off

verb

"work-off" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“work 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 lose (weight) by doing physical work; to burn off the calories gained from eating something.

Corpus desk

Index EN-work-off · work off · English

work 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 "W" 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 work off
PropertyValue
Headwordwork off
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechVerb
Letters8
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “work off” in English

work offsits 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

work off is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as averb. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.

work off doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. Our dataset records no confusable match here, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.

No documented word history exists for this headword, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. The correct English form is work off, spelled W-O-R-K- -O-F-F.

Definition

  1. 1
    To lose (weight) by doing physical work; to burn off the calories gained from eating something.
  2. 2
    To end (a debt) by doing labor for the person owed money.
  3. 3
    To produce (printed matter etc.) by some process of work.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how work off appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. We need to get moving to work off these donuts.
  2. After thirteen years, I've worked off my student debt.

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 "work off"?
"work off" is spelled W-O-R-K- -O-F-F.
What does "work off" mean?
As a verb, "work off" means: To lose (weight) by doing physical work; to burn off the calories gained from eating something.
What language does "work off" come from?
"work off" is a English word. PlainSpell's reference spans five languages -- English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German -- with definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for each.
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