offence

Other forms of offence

plural

offences·

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about offence

What does offence mean?

offence means "the action of attacking an enemy". That is the primary sense; the word has 5 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in offence?

offence has 2 syllables and divides as of-fence under the regular spelling rules. It is not in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, so that comes from how the word is written rather than from a recorded pronunciation, and no stress or phonetic transcription is claimed for it.

What is another word for offence?

Close synonyms include offense, offensive, offense, umbrage, offense. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

What is the opposite of offence?

The recorded antonyms are defence.

Is offence a common word?

offence is banded "Common" — everyday vocabulary in speech and writing. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.