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offending

noun · adjective

Simple meaning

Responsible; to be blamed.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

uhfehnding

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US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

əˈfɛndɪŋ

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

noun

  1. The act of committing an offence.

adjective

  1. Responsible; to be blamed.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
B2 · Upper Intermediate (estimated)
Frequency
Uncommon
Typical Use
Neutral / general English

More ways to use offending

  • “Contracts offending against the statute were canceled.”adjective

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

offending partyavoid offendingoffending behaviouroffending agentsexual offendingoffending godoffending memberoffending state

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Inflected forms

Grammatical variations of the same word.

  • offendverbBase word

    Cause to feel resentment or indignation.

Word family

Words built from the same root.

  • offendernounPerson or profession

    A person who transgresses moral or civil law.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: committing an offence

sinning

Antonyms

Sense: responsible

unoffendingRare

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.