Word.ws English Dictionary

off-beam

off-beam adjective: off course; by extension, mistaken or irrelevant. Also the alternative form of offbeam.

Adjective

off-beam (comparative more off-beam, superlative most off-beam)

  1. Off course; by extension, mistaken or irrelevant.
    • From their quizzical looks she surmised she was way off-beam.
    • No one to help you get up steam
      And the whirlpool turns you way off-beam.1972, “Thick As A Brick”, Ian Anderson (lyrics), performed by Jethro Tull

Also used as

off-beam is also the alternative form of offbeam.

Forms of off-beam

comparativemore off-beam
superlativemost off-beam

Origin of off-beam

From navigation, such as an aeroplane following a radio beam.

Questions about off-beam

What does off-beam mean?
Off-beam means off course; by extension, mistaken or irrelevant.
What part of speech is off-beam?
Off-beam is an adjective.

Words near off-beam in the dictionary

  1. off-angle
  2. off-angled
  3. off-angles
  4. off-angling
  5. off-base
  6. off-beam
  7. off-bear
  8. off-beat
  9. off-beats
  10. off-board
  11. off-book

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: off-beam (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: “off-beam.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/off-beam. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.