offensiveness

noun

"offensiveness" is a 13-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“offensiveness” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency English
13
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - The quality of being offensive.

Corpus desk

Index EN-offensiveness · offensiveness · English

offensiveness · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-MEGA 13 letters
  • VOW-5 5 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-THIN "O" thin
  • PHOTO-UNK Peer pending

Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Key facts for offensiveness
PropertyValue
Headwordoffensiveness
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
Letters13
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “offensiveness” in English

offensivenessranks outside the top 100,000 English headwords, in the long tail of specialist, archaic, or seldom-used vocabulary, exactly the territory where a reader stops mid-sentence to double-check spelling.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

offensiveness is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "The quality of being offensive.".

offensiveness doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, a sign its spelling follows regular English conventions. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.

Etymologically, the entry records: From offensive + -ness. The correct English form is offensiveness, spelled O-F-F-E-N-S-I-V-E-N-E-S-S.

Definition

  1. 1
    The quality of being offensive.

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

These source excerpts show how offensiveness appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. Some slurs like “slut” and “retard” vary in their perceived offensiveness to those polled, but also include some incredibly offensive words like the “N-word.”

Etymology

From offensive + -ness.

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "offensiveness"?
"offensiveness" is spelled O-F-F-E-N-S-I-V-E-N-E-S-S.
What does "offensiveness" mean?
As a noun, "offensiveness" means: The quality of being offensive.
What is the origin of the word "offensiveness"?
From offensive + -ness. See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list