Office

How to spell office

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce office

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does office mean?

1. nounA room, suite, or building where administrative or professional work is carried out.
2. nounA position of authority, trust, or duty that a person holds.

Office in a sentence

• She left the office early to beat the traffic.

• The mayor has held public office for nearly a decade.

• The new office has standing desks and better lighting.

• Taking office brings real responsibility for the budget.

Where does office come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word office descends from the Latin officium, which meant a service, a duty, or a function performed for others. That noun was itself a contraction of opificium, built from opus 'work' and facere 'to do or make', so at its root it literally captured the idea of doing work. It passed into English through Old French as 'office' in the 1200s, at first carrying the sense of a duty or a position of trust that someone holds. Only later did it broaden to mean the room or building where such duties are carried out, the meaning most people reach for today. The same officium also gave us 'official' and 'officer', and the double letter f, easy to drop when typing quickly, is a faithful echo of the Latin spelling.

How the word is built

• offic- (from Latin officium: service, duty)
• -e