Offend

How to spell offend

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce offend

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does offend mean?

1. verbTo cause someone to feel hurt, upset, or resentful.
2. verbTo commit a crime or break a law or accepted standard.

Offend in a sentence

• The manager chose her words carefully so as not to offend the new clients.

• Drivers who offend repeatedly will lose their licence.

• The crude joke seemed to offend several people at the dinner.

• The policy warns that staff who offend again will face dismissal.

Where does offend come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin offendere, which literally meant 'to strike against' or 'to knock into', formed from the prefix ob- meaning 'against' and the verb fendere meaning 'to strike or hit'. The same fendere root lies hidden inside 'defend' (to strike away from) and 'fence', so the family is all about striking. In Latin the sense broadened from a physical collision to the idea of stumbling, doing wrong, or giving displeasure, and English picked the word up through Old French offendre in the 1300s. The modern meaning, to hurt someone's feelings or to break a rule, comes directly from that figurative 'striking against' a person or a law. A useful spelling cue is the double f, which echoes the of- prefix fused onto the fend root.

How the word is built

• of- (variant of ob-: against)
• -fend (from fendere: to strike)