In American and Canadian publications, kickoff is a noun and an adjective, and kick off is its corresponding phrasal verb. For instance, it is one word in “the kickoff time is noon” and “you missed the kickoff” because it is an adjective in the first example and a noun in the second. And it is two words in “the kicker is ready to kick off” because here it functions as a verb.





The same distinction applies outside North America, but the noun/adjective is usually hyphenated—kick-off.






Examples