offensive

CEFRB2

/əˈfɛnsɪv/

adjective

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

01
adjective
Rude or insulting and likely to upset people.
02
adjective
Related to attacking an opponent in a contest or war.

Examples

I hear a noise offensive to the ear.
The instant I open the lid an offensive smell greets my nose.

At a glance

Sits at B2 on the CEFR scale

Senses: 5
Parts of speech: 1
Citations: 5
Synonyms: 3

Deep Dive

adjective

Extra meanings

Having to do with play directed at scoring.
Relating to an offense or attack, as opposed to defensive.
Causing offense; arousing a visceral reaction of disgust, anger, hatred, sadness, or indignation.

More examples

In context

We recoiled from the enemy's offensive.
The army's offensive capabilities. An offensive weapon.
Some people find pornography offensive.

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

His rude comments during the meeting were so blank that many people left.

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Nearby

Citations

The word in print, with each source given in full.

A survey at Yale University had 63% of students wanting professors to issue “trigger warnings” before saying anything that some might find offensive or could cause painful emotions.
2016 September 12, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, “Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: Political Incorrectness Is Just a Strategy”, in Time
Britain’s police are especially zealous. Officers spend thousands of hours sifting through potentially offensive posts and arrest 30 people a day. Among those collared were a man who ranted about immigration on Facebook and a couple who criticised their daughter’s primary school.
2025 May 15, “Europe’s free-speech problem”, in The Economist
In his submission to the UN, [Christof] Heyns points to the experience of drones. Unmanned aerial vehicles were intended initially only for surveillance, and their use for offensive purposes was prohibited, yet once strategists realised their perceived advantages as a means of carrying out targeted killings, all objections were swept out of the way.
2013 June 7, Ed Pilkington, “‘Killer robots’ should be banned in advance, UN told”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 188, number 26, page 6
In Central Hupeh, the Japanese launched another offensive from the Kingshan region, but instead of moving southwestward to cooperate with another column of theirs to capture Shasi, this column swerved to the northwest and succeeded in capturing Chunghsiang on the Han River.
1939 January, Lin Yu, “The "China Incident"”, in Philippine Magazine, volume XXXVI, number 1, →OCLC, page 121
By the summer of 1939, a stringent military blockade had been imposed on the Shen-Kan-Ning. In the winter of 1939–1940, the Nationalists launched an offensive against the outskirts of the Border Region. Thereafter, blockhouses were erected, 200,000 KMT troops were stationed around the Shen-Kan-Ning, and all economic aid to the Communists was suspended.
1971, Kenneth E. Shewmaker, “Closing the Door: 1939”, in Americans and Chinese Communists, 1927–1945: A Persuading Encounter, Cornell University Press, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 111

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Origin

adjective

From Middle French offensif, from offendre + -if by analogy with défensif. Offendre is from Latin offendere (“to offend”); see offend.

Deep Dive

adjective

More examples

Related

Quick test

His rude comments during the meeting were so blank— that many people left.

Nearby

Origin

adjective

His rude comments during the meeting were so blank that many people left.