Off is a small word with many uses that help us describe position, status, and action.

Most basically, off means away from or not on something. If you take your shoes off, you remove them from your feet. If a book falls off a table, it's no longer resting on the surface. When you get off the bus, you're leaving it and stepping away.

Off also describes things that aren't working or operating. When you turn off a light, you stop the electricity flowing to it. A machine that's off isn't running. If school is called off because of snow, classes aren't happening that day.

The word can mean something's wrong or unusual. If milk smells off, it's spoiled. When you have an off day, you're not performing as well as usual. If someone's behavior seems off, it strikes you as strange or different from normal.

In sports and games, you can be off before action begins. At a track meet, runners wait for the starting gun, then they're off and running.

Off pairs with many other words to create specific meanings: off-limits means forbidden, offbeat means unusual, and well-off means wealthy. Sometimes off suggests distance or separation, like describing a color as off-white (close to white but not quite) or living off campus (away from school grounds).