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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

defense.

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

7 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

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

    US · countable · uncountable
  2. Anything employed to oppose attack(s). A strategy and tactics employed to prevent the other team from scoring; contrasted with offense.

    US · countable · uncountable
  3. Anything employed to oppose attack(s). The portion of a team dedicated to preventing the other team from scoring; contrasted with offense.

    US · countable · uncountable
  4. An argument in support or justification of something.

    US · countable · uncountable
    to come to someone's defense
  5. An argument in support or justification of something. The case presented by the defendant in a legal proceeding.

    US · broadly · countable · uncountable
  6. An argument in support or justification of something. The lawyer or team thereof who presents such a case.

    US · broadly · countable · uncountable
  7. Government policy or (infra)structure related to the military.

    US · countable · euphemistic · uncountable
  8. A prohibition; a prohibitory ordinance.

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

From Middle English defens, defense, from Old French defens, defense, from Late Latin dēfēnsa (“protection”). Displaced native Old English bewering. The verb is from the noun.

verb/dɪˈfɛns/Received-Pronunciation, US/ˈdiːˌfɛns/US, often
  1. To employ defensive tactics (so as to block).

    US
Where this word comes from

From Middle English defens, defense, from Old French defens, defense, from Late Latin dēfēnsa (“protection”). Displaced native Old English bewering. The verb is from the noun.

verb/dɪˈfɛns/Received-Pronunciation, US/ˈdiːˌfɛns/US, often
  1. To furnish with defenses; to defend, protect.

    US · archaic
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.