VocabauraVOCABAURA

office

noun · verb

Simple meaning

A ceremonial duty or service.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

awfuhs

Say the bold part a little louder.

US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈɔfəs

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. religion

    A ceremonial duty or service, particularly

  2. christianity

    The authorized form of ceremonial worship of a church.

  3. now usually in plural

    A service, a kindness.

  4. Official position, particularly high employment within government; tenure in such a position.

  5. A room, set of rooms, or building used for non-manual work, particularly

  6. A position of responsibility.

verb

  1. To provide (someone) with an office.

  2. intransitive

    To have an office.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
A1 · Beginner (estimated)
Frequency
Very Common
Typical Use
General English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: A ceremonial duty or service, particularly

Used this way, office is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. This is a religious use: it carries the weight of tradition and ceremony.

Emotional tone
Neutral
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Not strongly marked
How common
Moderately common
Connotation
Formal and ceremonial
Usage feel
Formal and precise

Where it naturally appears

  • Religion/spirituality
  • Historical writing
  • Ethics/values

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

More ways to use office

  • “The whole office was late the morning of the blizzard.”noun
  • “He rented an office in the new building.”noun

Share your sentence

Write your own example sentence using “office”. We review each one before it appears.

Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

post officehome officepublic officehead officeoffice buildingprinting officecolonial office

Tap the highlighted word to open its own entry.

Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Inflected forms

Grammatical variations of the same word.

  • officernounInflected form

    Any person in the armed services who holds a position of authority or command.

Word family

Words built from the same root.

  • officialnounDerived noun

    A worker who holds or is invested with an office.

  • officiallyadverbDerived adverb

    In an official role.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • office of naval intelligencenounCompound term

    The military intelligence agency that provides for the intelligence and counterintelligence and investigative and security requirements of the United States Navy.

  • office of the deadnounCompound term

    An office read or sung before a burial mass in the Roman Catholic Church.

  • office staffnounCompound term

    Professional or clerical workers in an office.

  • office-bearernounCompound term

    The person who holds an office.

  • office blocknounCompound term

    A building containing offices where work is done.

  • office boynounCompound term

    A young man who is employed to do odd jobs in a business office.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: to provide (someone) with an office

berthpower

Use This Word

See how this word sounds in a real sentence.

Ask Vocabaura

Understand the word your way.

What Does It Mean Here?

Words can change meaning depending on context.

Use it yourself

Knowing “office” starts when you use it. Pick a next step, all free.

Know the meaning? Practice using it in a real situation, free, no credits.

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.