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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

defence.

The action of defending, of protecting from attack, danger or injury.

7 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/dɪˈfɛns/Received-Pronunciation
  1. The action of defending, of protecting from attack, danger or injury.

    UK · countable · uncountable
  2. Something used to oppose attacks.

    UK · countable · uncountable
  3. An argument in support or justification of something.

    UK · countable · uncountable
  4. A strategy and tactics employed to prevent the other team from scoring; contrasted with offence.

    UK · countable · uncountable
  5. The portion of a team dedicated to preventing the other team from scoring; contrasted with offence.

    UK · countable · uncountable
  6. Government policy or (infra)structure related to the military.

    UK · countable · uncountable
    Department of Defence
  7. Prohibition; a prohibitory ordinance.

    UK · countable · obsolete · uncountable
Where this word comes from

From Middle English defens, defense, from Old French defens, defense, from Late Latin dēfēnsa (“protection”). Displaced Old English bewering.

verb/dɪˈfɛns/Received-Pronunciation
  1. To furnish with defences; to fortify.

    UK · obsolete · transitive
Where this word comes from

From Middle English defencen, defensen, from Old French defenser or its etymon, Latin dēfēnsō.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.