Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Disagreeable to the senses: an offensive odor.
- adj. Causing anger, displeasure, resentment, or affront: an offensive gesture.
- adj. Making an attack: The offensive troops gained ground quickly.
- adj. Of, relating to, or designed for attack: offensive weapons.
- adj. Sports Of or relating to a team having possession of a ball or puck: the offensive line.
- n. An attitude or position of attack: go on the offensive in chess.
- n. An attack or assault: led a massive military offensive.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Serving to offend, assail, or attack; used in attack: opposed to defensive: as, offensive weapons.
- Consisting in or proceeding by attack; assailant; invading; aggressive: opposed to defensive.
- Serving to injure; injurious.
- Causing or giving offense; fitted or intended to offend or give displeasure; provocative of displeasure; insulting; annoying; displeasing: as, an offensive remark; offensive behavior.
- Disgusting; disagreeable; giving pain or unpleasant sensations: as, an offensive smell. Synonyms and
- n. With the definite article: An aggressive attitude or course of operations; a posture of attack: as, to act on or assume the offensive.
Wiktionary
- adj. Causing offense; arousing a visceral reaction of disgust, anger, or hatred.
- adj. Relating to an offense or attack, as opposed to defensive.
- adj. team sports Having to do with play directed at scoring.
- n. countable, military An attack.
- n. uncountable The posture of attacking or being able to attack.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Giving offense; causing displeasure or resentment; displeasing; annoying.
- adj. Giving pain or unpleasant sensations; disagreeable; revolting; noxious.
- adj. Making the first attack; assailant; aggressive; hence, used in attacking; -- opposed to
defensive - n. The state or posture of one who offends or makes attack; aggressive attitude; the act of the attacking party; -- opposed to
defensive .
WordNet 3.0
- adj. violating or tending to violate or offend against
- adj. unpleasant or disgusting especially to the senses
- adj. causing anger or annoyance
- adj. causing or able to cause nausea
- adj. morally offensive
- adj. for the purpose of attack rather than defense
- adj. substitute a harsher or distasteful term for a mild one
- n. the action of attacking an enemy
Etymologies
- From French offensif, from Latin as if *offensivus, from offendere ("to offend"), past participle offensus; see offend. (Wiktionary)
Examples
“The media have chosen to use the term offensive," he said.”
The Huffington Post: Derrick Crowe: Secretary Gates and Friends Backpedaling on Kandahar
“As I say in my long list of comments, not only is the term offensive, it is terribly imprecise and journalistically worthless.”
“State senator Frederica Wilson from Miami says she finds the term offensive and she says, "An alien to me is someone from outer space.”
“Glenn Greenwald, for example, takes on Ann Althouse who claims to find the term offensive as well as Glenn Reynolds who calls it "a variety of bigotry.”
“We cannot say the term offensive for Kandahar," said the Afghan National Army officer in charge here, Gen. Sher Mohammad Zazai.”
“Notice how he says, "Now that I know YOU find the term offensive, I will refrain from using it.”
“Obviously, Jeff Roorda doesn't find the term offensive at all.”
“Now that I know you find the term offensive, I will refrain from using it.”
“Since then, reports of McCain's language have been circulating on Internet chat sites and e-mails among Asian Americans, many of whom find the the term offensive and inappropriate for an elected official.”
“They claim to find the term offensive and disparaging - and say it should not, therefore, be entitled to any form of commercial protection under US law.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘offensive’.
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
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Beautiful and Ugly
Beautiful, attractive, well-formed
Ugly, unattractive, malformedadorable, alluring, angelic, appealing, appetizing, attractive, beaming, beauteous, beautiful, becoming, beguiling, bewitching and 180 more...
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eggplantia5's Words
scintillate, marvel, cranberry, oscillate, triumph, bamboozle, grimace, magical, book, hexagon, cipher, compendium and 2727 more...
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Basic English Vocabulary
Very basic words for ESL students.
a, abandon, ability, able, abortion, about, above, abroad, absence, absolute, absolutely, absorb and 4334 more...
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feeling words
twitterpated, loquacious, ambiguous, pensive, sluggish, anxious, adventurous, curious, abandoned, absent-minded, abrasive, abused and 653 more...
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My Words
Words that I use regularly and consider mine.
zen, poser, savvy, angst, flustered, bitter, whatsoever, farfetched, indeed, scenario, inevitable, salvage and 134 more...
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my dictionary
able, abnormally, abroad, absent, abstract, acceptable, acceptance, access, accessible, accession, according to, account and 4551 more...
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Words of the Day
glabella, chirotony, nook-shotten, crapehanger, filemot, swirlie, egosurf, lexiphanicism, Ruritanian, stichometry, chrononaut, faldstool and 2008 more...
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The things they carried (List 2)
Listening to this as an audio book for the second time. Tim O'Brien uses simple words and phrases to great effect. Very few unfamilar and big words . The writing style reminds me of words from Joh...
The, Things, They, Carried, meant, fond, By necessity,, presented to him, far beyond, against the brick..., reaching, taut and 2940 more...
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ash
ash
abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abide, abject, abjure and 4874 more...
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sarahlena's list
Vocabularies
knee, admire, ambition, bend, experience, grow up, memory, opportunity, proud, regret, success, invent and 49 more...
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if you don't have anything nice to say
animosity, twit, fury, scorn, intrusive, abomination, affront, aggressive, antisocial, apalling, armada, avaricious and 85 more...
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Coarse (language)
Words meaning coarse (language).
scurrilous, obscene, indecent, vile, ribald, opprobrious, offensive, irreverant, impious, bawdy, licentious, lewd and 3 more...
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Usually forgotten
the words which i forget most of the time when in a conversation
quality time, transvestite, deliberate, instinctive, conscious, antics, abundant, generous, offensive, tangible, scandalize, observation and 8 more...
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the warmonger
war, battle, fight, throwdown, skirmish, altercation, brawl, conflict, clash, dust-up, sortie, onslaught and 24 more...
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8/11/10
shrewd, suave, animated, condescension, haughty, was, the, exotic, impudent, inane, offensive, vivid and 35 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for offensive.
afredricks In some cultures, it's offensive to take pictures of people without their permission. May 20, 2009