Word.ws English Dictionary

drop-out

drop-out is the alternative spelling of dropout.

Meaning of dropout

Noun

dropout (countable and uncountable, plural dropouts)

  1. Someone who has left an educational institution without completing the course
    • The politicians of the world are mere political university dropouts.
  2. Someone who has opted out of conventional society.
  3. One who suddenly leaves anything, or the act of doing so.
    • The pastures are filled with gay political drop-outs, persons of reasonable intent who found the scene personally destructive.1980 August 30, David Rothenberg, “A New York State of Confusion”, in Gay Community News, volume 8, number 6, page 5
  4. The slot in the frame that accepts the axles of the wheels.
  5. A damaged portion of a tape or disk, causing a brief omission of audio, video, or data.
  6. Momentary loss of an electronic signal.

See all 7 meanings of dropout

Forms of drop-out

pluraldrop-outs

Origin of drop-out

Deverbal from drop out.

Questions about drop-out

What is drop-out the alternative spelling of?
Drop-out is the alternative spelling of dropout.

Words near drop-out in the dictionary

  1. drop-leafs
  2. drop-leaves
  3. drop-lock
  4. drop-off
  5. drop-offs
  6. drop-out
  7. drop-outs
  8. drop-proof
  9. drop-ripe
  10. drop-scene
  11. drop-scenes

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: drop-out (page history and authors); dropout (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “drop-out.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/drop-out. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.