Office Meaning
/ˈɒf.ɪs/Definition, CEFR level A1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
nounA ceremonial duty or service, particularly
nounA ceremonial duty or service, The authorized form of ceremonial worship of a church.
Sentence Examples
Why did you not go to the office?
Have you ever visited the office where your father works?
His sudden departure threw the office into chaos.
CEFR Practice Quiz
She went to the ____ every morning to work at her desk.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
She arrived at the ____ early to prepare the presentation before the clients arrived.
Word Origin & History
From Middle English office, from Old French office, from Latin officium (“personal, official, or moral duty; official position; function; ceremony, esp. last rites”), contracted from opificium (“construction: the act of building or the thing built”), from opifex (“doer of work, craftsman”) + -ium (“-y”, forming actions), from op- (“work”) + -i- (connective) + -fex (combining form of faciō (“to do, to make”)). The computing sense is a genericization of various proprietary program suites, such as Microsoft Office.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"Golde (gaue he him)[…]for all maner of veſſels of euery offyce[…]"
— 1535 October 14 (Gregorian calendar), Myles Coverdale, transl., Biblia: The Byble, […] (Coverdale Bible), [Cologne or Marburg]: [Eucharius Cervicornus and Johannes Soter?], →OCLC, I. Cronicles xxix, folio xc, verso, column 2:
"His spirituall exercises were chiefly Prayer, the H. Sacrifice of Masse, his Canonicall Houres or diuine Office."
— 1674, Richard Strange, The Life and Gests of S. Thomas Cantilupe, Bishop of Hereford, page 287:
"The deuout offices of balming and anointing the dead bodies[…]"
— 1582, The Nevv Testament of Iesus Christ: […] (Douay–Rheims Bible), Rheims: Iohn Fogny, →OCLC, Iohn 12, marginalia, page 254:
"To show their loue in this last office done
To a dead friend."
— 1618, S. Rowlands, Sacred Memorie, section 37:
"I[…]will be first to render thee the decent offices due to the dead."
— 1822 May 29, [Walter Scott], chapter XI, in The Fortunes of Nigel. […], volume III (in English), Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co., →OCLC, page 318:
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CEFR Practice Quiz
She went to the ____ every morning to work at her desk.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
She arrived at the ____ early to prepare the presentation before the clients arrived.