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offense

of·fense/əˈfɛns/noun

offense is spelled O-F-F-E-N-S-E: 7 letters and 2 syllables (of·fense). It appears 18 times per million words in written English, the 4,589th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). People search “offence vs offense” about 8,100 times a month (Google, United States). As a noun, offense means “A crime or sin” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of offense is offenses.

How many letters and syllables are in offense?

Letters7: O-F-F-E-N-S-E
Syllables2: of·fense
In writing18 times per million words; the 4,589th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Pairs people search

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).

How common is offense?

Offense appears 18 times per million words in written English, the 4,589th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce offense?

  • /əˈfɛns/
  • /ˈɔf.ɛns/
  • /ˈɑf.ɛns/

Offense has 2 syllables, split of·fense in writing.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-offense.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Words people confuse with offense

Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).

offence vs offense8,100 G

Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

Forms of offense

  • offenses plural
  • offence UK

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does offense mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    USA crime or sin.

  2. 2

    USAn affront, injury, or insult.

  3. 3

    USThe state of being offended or displeased; anger; displeasure.

  4. 4

    USA strategy and tactics employed when in position to score; contrasted with defense.

  5. 5

    USThe portion of a team dedicated to scoring when in position to do so; contrasted with defense.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Offense in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
GermanVergehen (act of offending against the law), beleidigt sein, gekränkt sein (state of being offended)
Portugueseofensa, delito, transgressão (act of offending against the law), insulto (act of offending against manners), ataque (strategy and tactics employed when in position…)
Spanishofensa (act of offending against manners)
Frenchattaque, offensive (strategy and tactics employed when in position…), attaquants (portion of a team dedicated to scoring)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does offense come from?

From Middle English offence, from Old French offense, from Latin offensa (“a striking against; displeasure; injury”).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after offense