offended
Americanadjective
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feeling or expressing hurt, indignation, or irritation because of a perceived wrong or insult.
The man replied in an offended voice, "My niece would never do anything like that!"
-
being the recipient or victim of criminal or morally repugnant behavior.
After the referral agent and the offender speak, the offended individual is invited to speak about how the assault affected them.
-
(of a sense, taste, etc.) affected disagreeably.
With the bright neon blue and red, the dress looked like clown garb, so my offended aesthetic sense told me to take it off.
verb
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of offended
Explanation
Someone who's offended is annoyed, hurt, or disgusted. If one presidential candidate comments snidely on the hairstyle of another, the offended candidate may retaliate. If your feelings are hurt by your brother's comment that he "could take or leave" the chocolate chip cookies you baked for him, you're offended. And your grandmother's offended expression may be the result of the dreadful movie you're watching. Offended comes from the verb offend, specifically its secondary meaning "to wound the feelings." The Latin root is offendere, "to hit, stumble, provoke, or displease."
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.
The unapologetically Black person wears their Blackness every day, regardless of who is offended or discomforted by it.
From Salon ● Oct. 21, 2026
But many of the offended parties found something more basic at work, the “accusation” that they were descended from monkeys—“Not even from American monkeys,” said the prosecution’s William Jennings Bryan, “but Old World monkeys.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 13, 2026
Worry less about who’s talking to whom and who has offended whom, and more about the parents’ independence.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 6, 2026
Instead, the cyber-criminals asked the agency to retract an advisory that it issued in May about the gang, saying it was "offended" by its characterisation.
From BBC ● Sep. 29, 2026
My parents were far more offended by the word if it was uttered in English and not in our native Farsi, which they tried to encourage us to speak as much as possible.
From "Americanized" by Sara Saedi
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
