Advertisement

Advertisement

View synonyms for off-key

off-key

[ awf-kee, of- ]

adjective

  1. deviating from the correct tone or pitch; out of tune.
  2. Informal. somewhat irregular, abnormal, or incongruous.


off key

adjective

  1. music
    1. not in the correct key
    2. out of tune
  2. out of keeping; discordant
“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012


Discover More

Word History and Origins

Origin of off-key1

First recorded in 1925–30
Discover More

Example Sentences

He says if a string in a song is a little off-key, you can pick it out and change it.

The jibe is off-key too because Wilde himself was hardly immune to the sentimental and even the mawkish.

“Bring the drugs baby, I can bring my pain,” The Weeknd sings in his beauteous, soaring voice, backed by off-key sonic beats.

"I would've jumped out a window if it were on a higher floor," he says of an off-key information session we sit in on.

By Day 40, smiles are rare, and when they occur, they seem off-key.

Mapihaw ku ug mutaas ang núta, I go off-key on the high notes.

From inside came the rare sound of water splashing, mixed with a wheezing, off-key caterwauling.

Haberdasher did not fit in anywhere with Kitty's projects; it was off-key, a jarring note.

It sounded off-key because it was as off-key as a ten-yard-strip of baldfaced perjury.

Clumsily, rustily, Ben whistled a cheerful little off-key tune to himself.

Advertisement

Related Words

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement


off-islanderoff-kilter