office
Pluraloffices
Pluraloffices
Formsoffices, officing, officed
- 1A room or building where people work at desks, doing things like paperwork or computer work.
Mom works in an office downtown, keeping track of the company's bills and records.
My mom's office is on the third floor, next to the elevators.
UsageSay you work in an office, and you are at the office when you are at work.
- 2An important job with power, especially in government, or the time someone has that job.
The club voted to give her the office of treasurer.
She held the office of mayor for eight years.
UsageSay in office and leave office, with no a or the; but the office of mayor.
Note
- 3One of the places where a company or organization does its work, such as its branch in one city.
Our company's Chicago office handles sales for the whole Midwest.
She transferred from the London office to the one in New York.
UsageOften with a city name: the Chicago office.
Similarbranch
Note
- 4A part of a company, government or other group that does one kind of work.
The office that handles complaints answered my letter within a week.
You will need to call the records office to get a copy.
UsageUsually with a word for the work before it: the records office.
- 5A room or small building where people can buy tickets or pay for services.
We bought our train tickets at the office by the platform.
The campground has a small office where visitors pay for their sites.
UsageOften after a word for what you buy: ticket office.
Note
- 6The place where you see a doctor for a checkup or to talk about a health problem.
We waited in the doctor's office for almost an hour before the checkup.
We waited an hour at the doctor's office before the nurse called us in.
UsageSay at the doctor's office or the dentist's office.
- 7
Less common meanings
- 8A duty or job that someone must do because of their position.
It is not the office of a judge to make the laws.
In the early church, caring for the poor was the deacon's office.
UsageOften the office of + a role: the office of host.
Similarrole, duty, task, responsibility
Note
- 9To give someone a room or place to work in.
The company will office the new staff on the third floor.
They officed her in a small room near the elevator.
UsageOften be officed in a place: she was officed in a small room.
Similarhouse, accommodate
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- 10To have an office or work from one, especially in a particular place.
She offices downtown, near the train station.
The two lawyers office together in a small building downtown.
UsageSay where: she offices downtown.
Similarwork
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- 11
- 12A church service of set prayers, especially the prayers said at fixed times each day.
The wedding followed the office set out in the church's prayer book.
The monks get up before dawn to pray the office together.
UsagePeople say or pray the office.
Note
- 13The last ceremonies and duties done for a person who is dying or has died.
The family sent for a priest to perform the last offices.
The village priest said the offices for the drowned fishermen before they were buried.
UsageUsually the last offices: a priest will perform the last offices.
Note
- 14A special duty or ceremony that someone performs at a formal or religious event.
During the service, lighting the candles was the boy's special office.
At the coronation, each lord had his own office to perform.
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- 15The working rooms of a big house, such as the kitchen and laundry. Also a polite old word for the toilets.
The cook spent her whole day down in the offices of the great house.
The bathroom's to the right and the usual offices next to it.
1957, John Braine, Room at TopHere, offices means the toilets, a polite old way to say it.Note
- 16The job or purpose that something is meant to do.
In this experiment the several intervals of the teeth of the comb do the office of so many prisms.
1704, I[saac] N[ewton], OpticksHere, office means the job or function, so the gaps work like prisms.These ‘Pacific boom-lateens’... are believed to derive from a kind of sprit-sail... in which the upper sprit performs the office of a more or less aft-raking mast.
1971, John Needham, Science and Civilisation in ChinaUsageMostly in do the office of something; today people say function.
Similarfunction
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- 17
- 18An official, or a group of officials acting together.
Ped. Now Mr. Office: What is the Reason that your vigilant Greatness And your Wife's wonderful wiseness have lock'd up from me The way to see my Mistress? Who's Dog's dead now, That you observe these Vigils?
Can we date this quote?, Francis Beaumont, John FletcherHere, Office means an official, a person who holds office, spoken to directly.Note
- 19The part of a plane where the pilot or the observer sits.
The pilot climbed into the office and checked his instruments.
I withdraw into ‘the office’, otherwise the observer's cockpit.
1917, Alan Bott, An Airman's OutingsHere, the office means the cockpit, the seat in a plane where the observer sits.Similarcockpit
Note
- 20The place where a person can usually be found.
The corner table at the tavern was his office, and everyone knew it.
His Office, any Man's ordinary Haunt, or Plying-place, be it Tavern, Ale-house, Gaming-house.
1699, A New Dictionary of the Terms Ancient and Modern of the Canting CrewHere, Office means a person's usual hangout, a place they are often found.Note
- 21Computer programs for writing, tables of numbers and slides, used before another noun, as in office software.
- 22Short for Holy Office. A name for the old church court that judged people accused of going against church teaching.
- 23Clipping of inquest of office. A short name for an old legal inquiry about land or goods claimed by the king.
If the Crown claimed the land of an idiot, the person had first to be found an idiot by office.
1977, John McDonald Burke, Jowitt's Dictionary of English LawHere, office means an inquest of office, an old legal inquiry for the Crown. - 24The Mass, or the song sung as it starts.
The office, or Introite, (as they call it).
1549, “Svpper of the Lorde”, in The Book of Common Prayer - 25Ground where people hunt, or ground that a gamekeeper looks after.
All hunt in James Whitendales office.
1617, Nicholas Assheton, Journal - 26A natural action of the body, especially going to the toilet, or one time of doing it.
Washing themselves, as they doe also after the offices of Nature.
1613, Samuel Purchas, Purchas - 27Doing a duty, or one time of doing it.
Showing meanings only.
Practice
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Origin
It comes from Latin officium, meaning a duty or official position. This came into English through Old French office.
Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- English office derives from Latin officium. en.wiktionary.org
- Latin officium meant a duty or official position. en.wiktionary.org
- The word entered English through Old French office. en.wiktionary.org