Cutoff

How to spell cutoff

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce cutoff

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does cutoff mean?

1. nounA fixed point, time, or level at which something stops or is no longer accepted.
2. adjectiveMarking the point or date beyond which something will not count or apply.

Cutoff in a sentence

• noun

  The cutoff for online entries is midnight on Friday.

• adjective

  The cutoff date for the early discount is the last day of March.

• noun

  Any score below the cutoff failed to qualify for the grant.

• adjective

  Applicants who missed the cutoff time were placed on a waiting list.

Where does cutoff come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is a native English compound formed from the verb 'cut' and the particle 'off'. The verb 'cut' is of uncertain early origin but was well established in Middle English, probably from a Scandinavian source related to dialect words meaning 'to slice or sever'; 'off' descends directly from Old English 'of', the stressed form of the preposition meaning 'away from'. The two were used together as a phrasal verb, 'to cut off', meaning to sever or stop, long before they fused into a single noun. By the 1800s 'cutoff' had hardened into a noun for a point at which something is stopped or a shortcut that bypasses a longer route, as in a river channel that cuts across a bend. The main spelling trap is simply remembering that the noun and adjective are written as one solid word with a doubled 'f', whereas the verb phrase stays two words ('cut off').

How the word is built

• cut (to sever)
• off (away, ending)