OFFENDS Synonyms: 120 Similar and Opposite Words

offends

verb

present tense third-person singular of offend

as in falls

to commit an offense since this is the first time you've offended, we'll let you off lightly

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

as in insults

to cause hurt feelings or deep resentment in the visitor unintentionally offended his hosts terribly by failing to compliment them on the elaborately prepared meal

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as in violates

to fail to keep offended conventional standards of uniformity by not adhering to the company dress code

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Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Recent Examples of offends But these arguments, about how free expression is defined, whether art that offends is inherently harmful, and whose sensibilities determine what art gets shown to the public, would recur again and again. —

Isaac Butler, New Yorker, 30 May 2026 Very little offends me in a moral sense in the theater, but parts of this script came close. —

Chris Jones, Chicago Tribune, 27 Apr. 2026 Obviously the blandness of a tan wall offends them. —

Joan Morris, Mercury News, 9 Mar. 2026 If that language offends you — come on. —

Ryan Coleman, Entertainment Weekly, 11 Jan. 2026 If one employee offends another, they are fired on the spot. —

Nick Vivarelli, Variety, 8 Jan. 2026 To admit what hurts, agitates, and offends us in fact illuminates what is complicated and good in us. —

Literary Hub, 10 Dec. 2025 The Intel case offends two basic economic truths. —

Veronique De Rugy, Oc Register, 23 Oct. 2025 Think of the chatbots that enrage customers, copy that erases brand voice, email that offends prospects, or sales outreach that overwhelms without engaging. —

Andrea Hill, Forbes.com, 21 Aug. 2025

Recent Examples of Synonyms for offends

Verb

When the first of a month falls on a weekend or holiday, the latter being the case for January’s payment, SSI payments are issued on the last weekday of the previous month.

— Asher Notheis, The Washington Examiner, 7 Dec. 2025
So most of them [films] at the time, there’s the melodrama — the poor girl falls with a rich boy, and then the family against her, blah, blah, same old story.

— Naman Ramachandran, Variety, 7 Dec. 2025