as in tuneless
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Recent Examples of off-key
Warming up, Smith throws back his head and belts Bieber lyrics, joyfully off-key.
—
Sam Kestenbaum, Vulture, 2 Jan. 2026
Gran’s butter yellow Cadillac was a welcome surprise in the school carpool line, her slightly off-key singing voice kept me entertained in the church pews on Sunday morning, and her dining room table was the joyful location of many family celebrations.
—Brennan Long, Southern Living, 29 Nov. 2025
Additionally, Sanville and Freeman’s co-mingling vocals were, depending on the moment, complementary in their harmony or shredded in their screaming, without screeching into off-key territory.
—William Earl, Variety, 12 Nov. 2025
The parody came in a chaotic birthday party sketch where Carpenter and her friends told a story through intentionally off-key performances.
—Bryan West, Nashville Tennessean, 23 Oct. 2025
The sketch centers on Kelsey (Chloe Fineman), whose affair with Domingo (Marcello Hernandez) is revealed to her husband, Matt (Andrew Dismukes), via a group of off-key girl friends.
—Ted Johnson, Deadline, 18 Oct. 2025
Singing off-key, dancing around, and grabbing a slice of pizza before heading out kept her in high spirits.
—Larry Stansbury, Essence, 19 Sep. 2025
Yet in subsequent editions, the Muirs, or perhaps their publishers, rejected that suitably plain title and replaced it with the storied but off-key Metamorphosis.
—Mark Harman
august 8, Literary Hub, 8 Aug. 2025
Sam Kestenbaum, Vulture, 2 Jan. 2026
Gran’s butter yellow Cadillac was a welcome surprise in the school carpool line, her slightly off-key singing voice kept me entertained in the church pews on Sunday morning, and her dining room table was the joyful location of many family celebrations.
—Brennan Long, Southern Living, 29 Nov. 2025
Additionally, Sanville and Freeman’s co-mingling vocals were, depending on the moment, complementary in their harmony or shredded in their screaming, without screeching into off-key territory.
—William Earl, Variety, 12 Nov. 2025
The parody came in a chaotic birthday party sketch where Carpenter and her friends told a story through intentionally off-key performances.
—Bryan West, Nashville Tennessean, 23 Oct. 2025
The sketch centers on Kelsey (Chloe Fineman), whose affair with Domingo (Marcello Hernandez) is revealed to her husband, Matt (Andrew Dismukes), via a group of off-key girl friends.
—Ted Johnson, Deadline, 18 Oct. 2025
Singing off-key, dancing around, and grabbing a slice of pizza before heading out kept her in high spirits.
—Larry Stansbury, Essence, 19 Sep. 2025
Yet in subsequent editions, the Muirs, or perhaps their publishers, rejected that suitably plain title and replaced it with the storied but off-key Metamorphosis.
—Mark Harman
august 8, Literary Hub, 8 Aug. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for off-key
Adjective
-
Her aesthetics and tuneless vocals left audiences in awe and laughter.—
Raquel Willis,
Time,
19 June 2025
-
For the rest of us, a real musical comedy is a cause for celebration; most are either too tuneless to be musicals or too dull to be comedies.—
Jesse Green,
New York Times,
11 Apr. 2025
Adjective
-
Someone strums a guitar below the bridge, throwing off an atonal shimmer.—
Philip Sherburne,
Pitchfork,
6 Jan. 2026
-
Then, in 2015, the artist Robin Rhode chose Times Square on a Saturday night as the site for his interpretation of a slow-motion, atonal Arnold Schönberg opera.—
Rachel Corbett,
Curbed,
22 Dec. 2025
Adjective
-
Over time, this buildup can affect the dishwasher's performance, lead to unpleasant odors, and leave dishes less clean.—
Daley Quinn,
Southern Living,
8 Feb. 2026
-
The water in Griffin was deemed safe to use the same day as the spill, later in the evening, but some residents believed the water still had an unpleasant smell.—
Irene Wright,
USA Today,
6 Feb. 2026
Adjective
-
The cold was biting at that hour, and people hurried about, thinking of autumn—a season as bitter and disagreeable as a sour apple that could nonetheless hold a beautiful day or two in store before the freeze set in, a sudden blue sky washed clean by the wind or rain.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
22 Jan. 2026
-
This danger is creating a modern sycophancy crisis in which the over-agreeableness of AI is leading to very disagreeable results.—
Arianna Huffington,
Time,
14 Jan. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Off-key.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/off-key. Accessed 14 Feb. 2026.
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