DictionaryAI

office

AW-fis/ˈɔ.fɪs/UKOF-is/ˈɒf.ɪs/

Pluraloffices

27 meanings of office

Practice

  1. 1
    desk workplacenouncountable
    A room, set of rooms, or building where people do administrative, clerical, or professional work.

    The accountant's office was lined with filing cabinets and ledgers.

    After the merger, the company moved its payroll staff into a larger office across town.

    UsageWork in an office; for your own workplace, people say at the office or in the office.

  2. 2
    position of powernouncountable or uncountable
    A position of authority or responsibility, especially a public or government post, or the time during which someone holds it.

    She has held the office of secretary for two terms.

    The bylaws describe the duties of each office in the association.

    UsageWithout an article for power held: in office, take office, leave office; with one for a post: the office of mayor.

    Note

    The position outlasts whoever fills it. An office can stand vacant while its duties fall to another official, and an oath binds the holder to 'faithfully execute the Office of President'.

  3. 3
    firm's outpostnounfigurativelycountable
    A particular branch or location of a larger white-collar business or organization.

    The firm's Tokyo office reported record profits last quarter.

    Layoffs hit the regional offices harder than headquarters.

    UsageOften named by its city: the Tokyo office, our London office.

    Similarbranch

    Note

    Older English used the word for a whole establishment offering a service. W. Bridge, in a sermon preached in 1646, speaks of an 'Insuring-Office', Benjamin Franklin in 1732 proposes 'an Office of Insurance for Servants', and Jane Austen's Emma mentions 'advertising offices'.

  4. 4
    departmentnounfigurativelycountable
    A department of a business, government, or other organization, thought of as a unit; in Britain, also the name of some government ministries, such as the Home Office.

    The admissions office reviews every application twice.

    Her complaint worked its way through three different offices before anyone responded.

    UsageUsually a word for the work comes first: the admissions office, the records office; a ministry's name takes capitals, as in the Home Office.

  5. 5
    nouncountable
    A room or building where tickets or services are sold to the public.

    Lines formed outside the office an hour before the ferry tickets went on sale.

    Residents can pay their water bills at the office on Main Street.

    UsageUsually a word for what is sold comes first: ticket office; also box office at a theater.

    Note

    Compounds that name what is sold carry this sense. Keats, in a letter of 1819 to Reynolds, jokes that the family of the blue-devils, or low spirits, will be waiting for his friend 'at the coach-office', the place where travel on the coach was arranged.

  6. 6
    clinicnounUScountable
    A room or suite where a physician sees patients for consultation and diagnosis, rather than for surgery or other major procedures.

    She visited her dermatologist's office for a routine skin check.

    Minor procedures can be done in the office, but major operations happen at the hospital.

    UsageUsually the doctor's office or the dentist's office, after at or in.

    Similarpractice, clinic

  7. 7
    staffnounfigurativelycountable
    The staff of an office or workplace, considered as a single group.

    The entire office attended her retirement party on Friday.

    The office voted to donate its holiday fund to the food bank.

    UsageOften the whole office, the entire office or half the office.

    Similarstaff, workforce

Practice

Can you tell the meanings of office apart? Answer 3 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.

Origin

It comes from Latin officium, meaning a personal or official duty, position, or function, which passed into English through Old French office and Middle English office. The Latin word was contracted from opificium ("the act of building"), from opifex ("doer of work, craftsman"), built from op- ("work") and a form of faciō ("to do, to make"). The computing sense generalizes proprietary program suites such as Microsoft Office.

Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 8 facts