Playoff
nounA match or series of matches played to decide a championship or to break a tie.
How to spell playoff
7 letters · 2 syllables
How to pronounce playoff
Say the part in capitals loudest.
What does playoff mean?
- nounA match or series of matches played to decide a championship or to break a tie.
Playoff in a sentence
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The team reached the playoff after a strong season.
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A single playoff game will determine which side advances.
Where does playoff come from?
Language of origin: Germanic
This is a native English compound, formed by joining the everyday verb 'play' with the particle 'off'. The verb 'play' descends from the Old English plegian, meaning 'to exercise, frolic, or take part in a game', while 'off' comes from Old English of, an older variant of 'of' that came to signal separation or completion. The phrase 'to play off' originally described settling a tie by playing an extra contest, and by the 1890s in American sport the words had fused into the single noun 'playoff'. From baseball and golf it spread to nearly every competitive sport, coming to mean any decisive match or series after the regular season. Because it is a transparent compound, the spelling holds no hidden surprises: it is simply 'play' followed by 'off' with its doubled f.
How the word is built
- play (compete)
- off (to a finish/decision); a closed compound from the verb phrase 'play off'
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