Word.ws English Dictionary

kickoff

kickoff is the alternative spelling of kick-off.

Meaning of kick-off

Noun

kick-off (plural kick-offs)

  1. The opening kick of each half of a game of football.
    • The atmosphere at Upton Park before kick-off reflected the palpable tension surrounding the club right now2011 January 11, Jonathan Stevenson, “West Ham 2 - 1 Birmingham”, in BBC
  2. (broadly) The opening sequence of any event.
    • Duffy, 26, began a campaign for the 9th Suffolk district […] The crowd of approximately 50 people at his kickoff party was overwhelming composed of other young, white gay men.1990 February 4, Laura Briggs, “Gay Republican To Oppose Black Rep”, in Gay Community News, volume 17, number 29, page 3
  3. The opening sequence of notes in a song, usually played by the song's main instrument, to indicate the beginning of the song.

Forms of kickoff

pluralkickoffs

Origin of kickoff

Deverbal from kick off.

Phrases with kickoff

Questions about kickoff

What is kickoff the alternative spelling of?
Kickoff is the alternative spelling of kick-off.

Words near kickoff in the dictionary

  1. kickless
  2. Kicklighter
  3. Kicklighters
  4. kickline
  5. kicklines
  6. kickoff
  7. kickoff meeting
  8. kickoff meetings
  9. kickoff returner
  10. kickoff returners
  11. kickoffs

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: kickoff (page history and authors); kick-off (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: “kickoff.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/kickoff. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.