defence

American  

[dih-fens] / dɪˈfɛns /

noun

defenced, defencing

1. British. variant of defense.

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defence British  

/ dɪˈfɛns /

noun

1. resistance against danger, attack, or harm; protection

2. a person or thing that provides such resistance

3. a plea, essay, speech, etc, in support of something; vindication; justification

4. 1. a country's military measures or resources

   2. ( as modifier )

      defence spending

5. law a defendant's denial of the truth of the allegations or charge against him

6. law the defendant and his legal advisers collectively Compare prosecution

7. sport

   1. the action of protecting oneself, one's goal, or one's allotted part of the playing area against an opponent's attacks

   2. the method of doing this

   3. the players in a team whose function is to do this

8. American football (usually preceded by the)

   1. the team that does not have possession of the ball

   2. the members of a team that play in such circumstances

9. psychoanal See defence mechanism

10. (plural) fortifications

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Other Word Forms

• defenceable
  adjective
• defenceless
  adjective
• defencelessly
  adverb
• defencelessness
  noun
• predefence
  noun

Etymology

Origin of defence

C13: from Old French, from Late Latin dēfensum, past participle of dēfendere to _defend

Compare meaning

How does defence compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:

• offence vs. defence

Explanation

This word does NOT mean taking down a fence; it is the British spelling of "defense" — a word that means the act of protecting or defending. Wearing garlic around your neck might be your defence against vampires. Defence can be verbal as well as physical. If you're in court charged with a crime, you (and your lawyer, if you have one) are called "the defence." If your only defence is that you were sleepwalking when you robbed a gas station, you might be going away for awhile. If you play defence in a team sport, your main job is to keep the other team from scoring (so stay wide awake).

Example Sentences

Duterte "absolutely" maintains his innocence, his former defence lawyer Nicolas Kaufman told the court in February.

From Barron's • May 27, 2026

Arnold added: "The main parts of it are actually less on defence and security that are new, but more actually about migration and related security issues."

From BBC • May 27, 2026

Satisfied with the test results, he said "important ultra-high defence science and technologies were introduced into the practical weapon tests."

From Barron's • May 27, 2026

Footage from the scene showed ambulances and civil defence crews searching through the damaged building as crowds gathered nearby.

From BBC • May 26, 2026

Had Galileo belonged to a functioning scientific community, to take just one example, he would have been firmly discouraged from placing his theory of the tides at the centre of his defence of Copernicanism.

From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton