What does "one-off" mean?

Something that is done, created, etc. only once, and often quickly, simply, or improvisationally.

What is a synonym for "one-off"?

Common synonyms include: singular, stand-alone, unique, nonce, one-shot, one-time.

One-off

adj, noun

adj, noun ·2 syllables ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1
Something that is done, created, etc. only once, and often quickly, simply, or improvisationally. Commonwealth, idiomatic
"Near-synonym: stand-alone"
2
a happening that occurs only once and is not repeated wordnet
3
Something unique and remarkable.
"Near-synonym: stand-alone"

Adjective

1
Occurring once, independent of any pattern; one-time.
"The government insisted that the embarrassing loss of the tax records was a one-off event."
2
Special; remarkable; rare; unusual.
"BMW is to create a one-off tribute to the iconic 3.0 CSL."

Synonyms

All synonyms

singular stand-alone unique nonce one-shot one-time

Antonyms

All antonyms

reoccurrence

Example

More examples

""Your grandad – he's a one, eh?" "What do you mean?" "Oh, I mean, he's a character. You know, a one-off." "Ah. Yeah, he is. They broke the mould when they made him, that's for sure.""

Etymology

From one + off. Probably from foundry work, for which making reusable molds is expensive and expediency makes the rule for molds not to be used only once. A term long used by artists who are printmakers and sculptors to indicate a unique print or casting. If using traditional edition numbering, a one-off would be a "1/1", which is said, "one of one" meaning the first print in an edition of one.

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