Takeoff

How to spell takeoff

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce takeoff

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does takeoff mean?

1. nounThe act of an aircraft leaving the ground and beginning flight.
2. nounA comic imitation or parody of a person, style, or thing.

Takeoff in a sentence

• The pilot waited for clearance before the takeoff.

• The comedian's takeoff of the prime minister had the audience laughing.

• Smooth takeoff and landing made the whole flight pleasant.

• The sketch was a clever takeoff of daytime talk shows.

Where does takeoff come from?

Language of origin: Old Norse

This is a native English compound built from two of the oldest words in the language. 'Take' came into English from the Old Norse 'taka', meaning to grasp or seize, brought by Scandinavian settlers, while 'off' descends from Old English 'of', an emphatic form of the preposition meaning 'away from'. The phrasal verb 'to take off', in the sense of rising up and departing, was first used of birds and acrobats, and was applied to powered aircraft in the early twentieth century as aviation developed. From that verb came the closed-up noun 'takeoff', naming the act of leaving the ground. A separate humorous sense, an imitation or parody, grew from the idea of 'taking off' someone's mannerisms; that meaning appeared in the 1800s. The spelling trap is simple: it is written solid as one word with the doubled 'f' of 'off', unlike the spaced verb 'take off'.

How the word is built

• take (verb: to get up, lift)
• off (adverb: away, departing); a closed compound noun from the phrasal verb 'take off'