offender
Americannoun
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offenders
plural
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someone who has violated a criminal, religious, or moral law.
The program aids individuals already in the criminal justice system and is geared toward nonviolent offenders.
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a person or thing that irritates, annoys, or angers.
Some of us tried to take matters into our own hands by confronting the noise pollution offenders, but they were entirely unwilling to quiet down.
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something that is disagreeable.
If you’re curious about the odor, I’m afraid you’ll find that the offender is a catbox that has not been emptied recently.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of offender
Explanation
An offender is a criminal, someone who breaks the law. A first-time offender, depending on the crime, might only have to pay a fine or perform community service. Offender is the way prison inmates and lawbreakers are often referred to in news reports or by police officers and prison staff. You might hear terms like "drug offenders," people arrested for crimes involving illegal drugs, or "juvenile offenders," young people who have broken the law. Offender comes from the verb offend, "to sin against" in the fourteenth century, from the Latin offendere, "to hit or strike against."
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.
See Examples For:
Despite being the worst offender, thanks for evolving.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 23, 2026
"He was already an offender in the community," Taylor said.
From BBC ● Aug. 13, 2026
Leicestershire Police said two men aged 52 and two women aged 43 who were arrested on suspicion of assisting an offender as part of the investigation were released on bail.
From BBC ● Jul. 27, 2026
A judge will order an offender to serve a minimum period in jail.
From BBC ● Jul. 27, 2026
Instead of a faceless state or community, crime victims were featured at trial, and criminal cases took on the dynamics of a traditional civil trial, pitting the family of the victim against the offender.
From "Just Mercy" by Bryan Stevenson
Burnham conceded that of those offenders, there will be "individuals who will pose a risk to communities", and said a cross-party oversight group would be established.
From BBC ● Aug. 30, 2026
In most cases involving young riders, the department refers offenders to an e-bike safety class instead of issuing a citation, he said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 27, 2026
At the time, Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Lisa F. Garcia called Amazon “among the top worst idling offenders in the city.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 25, 2026
And those consequences tend to be mild: Several incidents in the Washington Post piece resulted in probation for offenders who used Flock inappropriately.
From Salon ● Aug. 17, 2026
Newspapers launched crusades against pestilent alleys and excess smoke and identified the worst offenders in print—among them Burnham’s newly opened Masonic Temple, which the Chicago Tribune likened to Mount Vesuvius.
From "The Devil in the White City" by Erik Larson
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.
