What does "countdown" mean?

A count backward in fixed units to the time of some event, especially the launch of a space vehicle.

How do you pronounce "countdown"?

Pronounced //ˈkaʊntˌdaʊn//.

//ˈkaʊntˌdaʊn// noun, verb

noun, verb ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Noun

1
A count backward in fixed units to the time of some event, especially the launch of a space vehicle.
2
counting backward from an arbitrary number to indicate the time remaining before some event (such as launching a space vehicle) wordnet
3
The acts of preparation carried out during this period.
4
A radio or television program counting down the top songs of a given week, usually in reverse order and ending with the number one song.

Verb

1
To count down. nonstandard
"This was accomplished in the old system by polling a software variable representing the number of prebleach bin and issuing a software command to trigger the AOM once the variable has countdowned to zero."

"Take it seriously! The school festival won't wait for us. We're already in the final countdown."

From count + down.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.