noun ·2 syllables ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   A final game in a series needed to break a tie.
2. 2
   any final competition to determine a championship wordnet
3. 3
   A short series of games to select a league champion. US
4. 4
   A short series of games to select the last team to be promoted (to elevate to a higher league). UK
5. 5
   A short piece of underscore played during a scene transition in a stage musical, usually reprising a song from the preceding scene.

Example

More examples

"He loves to watch playoff basketball."

Etymology

Deverbal from play off; by surface analysis, play + -off.

Related phrases

Shaughnessy playoffplayoff beardplay off

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