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Glite Dictionary
playoff

playoff

347 2.8
Games between top teams to decide the champion
  • noun
  • /ˈpleɪˌɔf/
translation icon : fase final
  • After a tough regular season, the team made it to the playoffs and hopes to win the title.
  • a playoff game
  • playoff series
  • playoff teams

If your goal is to not just make it to the playoffs, that's perfect.

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Examples

  • The story is the Cardinals are still alive for a playoff spot.

    Jerry Maguire (1996)

  • This is the playoffs.

    Elemental (2023)

  • Two more games, and we needed them both to claim a playoff spot.

    Fiction book (1997)

  • All right, so this is this is baseball playoff season, right?

  • Additional minutes per game in the playoffs did not prevent players of any ability level from playing well.

    Academic text (1996)

  • We were watching the New England Patriots fight for a playoff spot.

    Fiction book (2002)

  • Growing up, I have watched countless league and playoff games as I found them exciting.

    Blog text (1)

  • The A's approach was to get to the playoffs by using analytics.

  • Our first playoff game was a close one, and I was the catcher.

    Fiction book (1997)

  • The best teams compete in the district playoff tournaments, and the winners of these go to the state tournament.

    Academic text (1993)

Synonyms

tournament
vsplayoff
745 1.8

A sports event where teams or players play several games to decide the winner

is limited to top teams and usually follows a regular season
series
vsplayoff
393 2.3

Several games played in a row between the same teams to decide a winner

is used for deciding a champion among top teams after the season
postseason
vsplayoff
79 3.4

The games after the regular season that decide the champion

is specifically the match or series used to decide the champion
playoff game
vsplayoff
30 2.8

A game that decides which team moves closer to winning the championship

can mean a single contest or a series among top teams after the season
tourney
vsplayoff
  • Informal
12 6.2

A sports competition where players or teams compete to win

is the more formal or full expression for the same competition

Compounds

playoff game
30 2.8

A game that decides which team moves closer to winning the championship

How Decisive

championship
617 2.5
final
191 2.0
playoff
347 2.8
playoff game
30 2.8

Surface Forms

playoff singular
playoffs plural

Morphology

playoff = play + off (semi-transparent) = play + off

Both components are common words, but the specialized sporting meaning 'series to decide a champion' is idiomatic and not entirely predictable from the parts for all learners.

Etymology

Playoff joins play and off, where play means to take part in a game and off here means to 'finish' or 'settle' something. So a playoff is a game or series of games used to decide the final winner after the regular season.