offense

Other spellings

• (UK) offence

Pronunciation

• IPA ^(key): /əˈfɛns/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Hyphenation: of‧fense

Noun

Singular offense

Plural offenses

1. (countable) An offense is an action that breaks the law.

   Murder is a serious criminal offense.

2. (uncountable) When you give offense to someone, you do something that they don't like.

   I didn't mean to give offense, but I didn't know that you don't do that in China.

3. (uncountable) The offense is the person or team who is attacking.

   For the first time in the game, Arsenal goes on the offense.