inoffensive
Americanadjective
-
causing no harm, trouble, or annoyance.
a mild, inoffensive man.
- Synonyms:
- unoffending, innocuous, harmless
-
not objectionable, as to the senses.
an inoffensive odor.
adjective
-
not giving offence; unobjectionable
-
not unpleasant, poisonous, or harmful
Other Word Forms
- inoffensively adverb
- inoffensiveness noun
Etymology
Origin of inoffensive
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
This was a hard swerve from Pittman’s inoffensive baseball posting from just a few weeks before.
From Slate • Jan. 22, 2026
It’s surrounded by modern apartment buildings, boxy and inoffensive, built to blend in with today’s taste.
From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 21, 2025
Maybe its blandness is its superpower: adaptable, inoffensive, and always ready to be whatever we want it to be.
From Salon • Jul. 5, 2025
Is “When Sally Met Hellmann’s” our inoffensive instant classic?
From Slate • Feb. 9, 2025
She seemed so inoffensive that the sentries let her pass without any questions as another vendor, one of the many who often arrived from the towns in the swamp.
From "One Hundred Years of Solitude" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
