offshore
adjective · verb · adverb · noun
Simple meaning
Located in another country.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
awfshawrSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈɔfˈʃɔɹ
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.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
adjective
Located in another country, especially one having beneficial tax laws or labor costs.
Moving away from the shore.
Located in the sea away from the coast.
verb
transitive
To move industrial production from one region to another or from one country to another, in order to seek lower business costs, such as labor.
adverb
Away from shore; away from land
At some distance from the shore.
noun
An area of or portion of sea away from the shore.
An island, outcrop, or other land away from shore.
Something or someone in, from, or associated with another country.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B1 · Intermediate
- Frequency
- Common
- Typical Use
- Everyday English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Located in another country, especially one having beneficial tax laws or labor costs.
Used this way, offshore is a specialist word with a mildly favourable edge. This is a legal use: the wording is institutional and carries a defined meaning in law rather than a loose everyday one.
- Emotional tone
- Slightly positive
- Formality
- Specialist/technical
- Intensity
- Moderate
- How common
- Specialized
- Connotation
- Positive and appreciative
- Usage feel
- Clinical and detached
Where it naturally appears
- Law/legal
- Government/politics
- Academic writing
- Finance/economics
Usage note
In general conversation this sense usually needs explaining — outside its field, people reach for a plainer word.
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use offshore
- “Cruising three miles offshore.”adverb
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
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Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
Drilling rig consisting of an offshore platform (floating or fixed to the sea bed) from which many oil wells can be bored radially.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
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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.