Off the top of my head definition

off the top of my head: meaning and explanation

We say off the top of my head when you need to think of something or remember something without any time to think, prepare or do research.

If you can answer someones question from memory, but you want to warn them that you havent thought carefully about the answer, you might introduce your answer with Off the top of my head.

e.g. A: Which street was that nice old antique shop on?

B: Off the top of my head, I think it was George Street.

A useful way to use this phrase is to tell people that you cant answer a question from memory.

e.g. A: Do you remember what time the film starts on Saturday?

B: Not off the top of my head. You should look it up on the cinema website.

Have a go at these micro-dictation exercises to hear this expression being used in context how much can you understand?

Listening exercises

Micro-listening #1

Accent: Ireland

Micro-listening #2

Accent: North America

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Micro-listening #3

Accent: England (RP)

This extra micro-listening exercise is only available to MicroEnglish Plus members. Sign up here.

Extra practice

Here are some questions/links to help you learn the new vocabulary:

• Can you remember a situation where you were asked a question that you couldnt answer off the top of your head?
• Try to answer one of these questions from memory: What is the population of your town or city? How many books have you read so far this year? How many countries have you visited in your life?

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Photo by Nina Strehl on Unsplash

Idioms

Tagged in:

England (RP), Ireland, North America