Word.ws English Dictionary

run-on

run-on adjective: continuing on where a rhetorical pause would be more appropriate.

Adjective

run-on (not comparable)

  1. Continuing on where a rhetorical pause would be more appropriate.
  2. Placed or coming at the end of something, such as at the end of a dictionary entry.
    • Most dictionaries cover most adverbs with only run-on entries.

Noun

run-on (plural run-ons)

  1. (usually) An amount of time spent playing on the field during a game, especially so as to evaluate a player's abilities.
  2. A run-on sentence.
    • She reads musically. No harsh stops, no broken-breathy run-ons, no ups and down soft and fast fluctuations.1974 April 27, Barba Biccirilli, “Learning To Dare”, in Gay Community News, page 3
  3. Anything that runs on, such as a run-on entry in a dictionary.
  4. The period when a power saw or other tool continues to run after being powered off.

Forms of run-on

pluralrun-ons

Phrases with run-on

Questions about run-on

What does run-on mean?
Run-on means continuing on where a rhetorical pause would be more appropriate.
What part of speech is run-on?
Run-on can be an adjective or a noun.

Words near run-on in the dictionary

  1. Run-O-Waters
  2. run-of-the-mill
  3. run-of-the-river
  4. run-off
  5. run-offs
  6. run-on
  7. run-on sentence
  8. run-on sentences
  9. run-ons
  10. run-out
  11. run-outs

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: run-on (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.

Last updated:

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