off the top of one's head
off the top of one's head prepositional phrase: in an extemporaneous manner; without careful thought, preparation, or investigation.
Prepositional phrase
- In an extemporaneous manner; without careful thought, preparation, or investigation.
- I cannot think of any good examples off the top of my head, but give me a couple of hours and I'm sure I could come up with something.
- Ideally, one would wish to explore them through a series of depth interviews extending over several months, rather than by a brief survey interview, which necessarily tends to elicit responses off the top of one's head.1990, Ronald Inglehart, Culture Shift in Advanced Industrial Society, Princeton University Press, →ISBN, page 130
- Synonyms:
- offhandedly, on the spot
- Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see off, top, head.
Synonyms of off the top of one's head
Forms of off the top of one's head
| alternative form | off the top of one's dome |
|---|---|
| alternative form | off the dome |
Questions about off the top of one's head
- What does off the top of one's head mean?
- Off the top of one's head means in an extemporaneous manner; without careful thought, preparation, or investigation.
- What part of speech is off the top of one's head?
- Off the top of one's head is a prepositional phrase.
Words near off the top of one's head in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: off the top of one's head (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-off the top of one's head.ogg.
Cite this entry: “off the top of one's head.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/off_the_top_of_one%27s_head. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.