# offender

Pronunciation: US say "uh-FEN-der" /əˈfɛndɚ/; UK say "uh-FEN-duh" /əˈfɛndə/

## Noun

1. A person who commits a crime or otherwise breaks the law.
   - Simple: A person who breaks the law and can be punished for it.
   - _The court ordered the offender to pay a fine and complete community service._
   - _First-time offenders may be eligible for a reduced sentence._
2. A person who causes offense to others or does something wrong.
   - Simple: A person who upsets others or does something wrong.
   - _When something goes wrong at work, people rush to name the offender._
   - _He was the chief offender, always interrupting others in meetings._

## Origin

From Middle English offendour, offender, equivalent to offend plus the suffix -er.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/offender (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).