offensive

Pluraloffensives

1. 1
   adjective

   Causing offense by provoking disgust, anger, hatred, sadness, or indignation in those who encounter it.

   The cartoon was pulled after readers complained it was deeply offensive.

   Several employees reported the manager's offensive comments to human resources.

   Similarinsulting, rude, objectionable, hurtful, abusive

   Oppositeinoffensive

   Note

   Latin offendere, 'to offend', reached English through Middle French offensif, a form shaped on the model of défensif. This meaning keeps the giving of offense, often in the construction find something offensive, or in a hedge like The Economist's 'potentially offensive posts' (2025). Its opposite is inoffensive; defensive answers the attacking meaning instead.

2. 2
   adjective

   Relating to attacking or carrying out an attack, rather than to defending.

   The general drew up an offensive plan to push the front forward.

   An offensive maneuver of that scale required surprise and overwhelming force.

   Similarattacking, aggressive

   Oppositedefensive

   Note

   Military and strategic writing puts it before nouns: offensive weapons, offensive capabilities, offensive purposes. Ed Pilkington, writing in 2013 about drones, notes that their offensive use was at first prohibited. The opposite is defensive, the very word French modeled offensif on. The 'causing offense' meaning plays no part here: an offensive weapon threatens attack, not good taste.

3. 3
   nouncountable

   An attack, especially a coordinated military campaign mounted against an opponent.

   The spring offensive aimed to break through the northern front.

   Commanders launched a major offensive across the river before dawn.

   Similarattack, assault, campaign, push, onslaught

   Note

   A campaign word, and almost always a launched one. The Marines, the Japanese in Hupeh in 1939 and Israel at Jenin in 2023 all launch offensives. Because it is countable, it takes words that size or place it: a major offensive, another offensive, an aerial and ground offensive. The uncountable stance works differently, since it is taken rather than launched.

4. 4
   adjective

   Relating to the play of a team or player working to advance and score, rather than to defend.

   The coach praised the team's offensive line for opening up scoring chances.

   Her offensive skills made her the league's top scorer this season.

   Similarattacking

   Oppositedefensive

   Note

   Sport takes the battlefield contrast and turns it into job titles and units. The offensive coordinator, who orders the rushing plays, has a defensive counterpart, and so does the offensive line. Here the word classifies rather than judges. Offensive play is simply play aimed at scoring, however clumsy or brilliant, carried over from the attacking meaning.

5. 5
   noununcountable

   A stance or position of attacking, or of being ready to attack.

   The general decided to take the offensive before reinforcements arrived.

   Once on the offensive, the candidate attacked every rival policy in turn.

   Similarinitiative, attack

   Oppositedefensive

   Note

   A posture that travels easily beyond war. A man who takes the offensive in the press, accusing his opponent of corruption, fights with words alone. The article is fixed, as in take the offensive or be on the offensive. With 'an' the word would mean a single operation, so 'the' marks a stance held rather than an attack mounted.

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