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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

office.

A ceremonial duty or service, particularly

6 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈɒf.ɪs/Received-Pronunciation/ˈɔf.ɪs/Australia, British, New-Zealand, Southern, Standard/ˈɔ.fɪs/General-American/ˈɑ-/General-American, cot-caught-merger
  1. A ceremonial duty or service, particularly

  2. A ceremonial duty or service The authorized form of ceremonial worship of a church.

  3. A ceremonial duty or service Any special liturgy, as the Office for the Dead or of the Virgin.

  4. A ceremonial duty or service A daily service without the eucharist.

  5. A ceremonial duty or service The daily service of the breviary, the liturgy for each canonical hour, including psalms, collects, and lessons.

    In the Latin rite, all bishops, priests, and transitional deacons are obliged to recite the Divine Office daily.
  6. A ceremonial duty or service Various prayers used with modification as a morning or evening service.

  7. A ceremonial duty or service Last rites.

  8. A ceremonial duty or service Mass, (particularly) the introit sung at its beginning.

    obsolete
  9. A position of responsibility.

    When the office of Secretary of State is vacant, its duties fall upon an official within the department.
    Do not conflate the officeholder with the office; the distinction sometimes matters.
  10. Official position, particularly high employment within government; tenure in such a position.

    She held office as secretary of state until she left office to run for office.
  11. A duty, particularly owing to one's position or station; a charge, trust, or role; (obsolete, rare) moral duty.

  12. Function: anything typically done by or expected of something.

    archaic
  13. A service, a kindness.

    plural · regional
    The secretary prevailed at the negotiations through the good offices of the Freedonian ambassador.
  14. Inside information.

    figuratively · slang
  15. A room, set of rooms, or building used for non-manual work, particularly

    The office of the Secretary of State is cleaned when it is vacant.
  16. A room, set of rooms, or building used for non-manual work A room, set of rooms, or building used for administration and bookkeeping.

  17. A room, set of rooms, or building used for non-manual work A room, set of rooms, or building used for selling services or tickets to the public.

  18. A room, set of rooms, or building used for non-manual work A room, set of rooms, or building used for consultation and diagnosis, but not surgery or other major procedures.

    US
  19. The staff of such places.

    figuratively
    The whole office was there... well, except you, of course.
  20. The administrative departments housed in such places, particularly

    figuratively
    He's from our public relations office.
  21. The administrative departments housed in such places A ministry or other department of government.

    Australia · UK · capitalized · figuratively · usually
  22. The administrative departments housed in such places Short for Holy Office: the court of final appeal in cases of heresy.

    abbreviation · alt-of · capitalized · figuratively · usually
  23. The administrative departments housed in such places A particular place of business of a larger white-collar business.

    figuratively
    He worked as the receptionist at the Akron office.
  24. The parts of a house or estate devoted to manual work and storage, as the kitchen, scullery, laundry, stables, etc., particularly (euphemistic, dated) a house or estate's facilities for urination and defecation: outhouses or lavatories.

    dated · in-plural
  25. Clipping of inquest of office

    UK · abbreviation · alt-of · clipping · historical
  26. A piece of land used for hunting; the area of land overseen by a gamekeeper.

    obsolete
  27. A hangout: a place where one is normally found.

    figuratively · obsolete · slang
  28. A plane's cockpit, particularly an observer's cockpit.

    UK · dated · slang
  29. A collection of business software typically including a word processor and spreadsheet and slideshow programs.

  30. An official or group of officials; (figuratively) a personification of officeholders.

    obsolete
  31. A bodily function, (particularly) urination and defecation; an act of urination or defecation.

    obsolete
  32. The performance of a duty; an instance of performing a duty.

    obsolete
Where this word comes from

From Middle English office, from Old French office, from Latin officium (“personal, official, or moral duty; official position; function; ceremony, esp. last rites”), contracted from opificium (“construction: the act of building or the thing built”), from opifex (“doer of work, craftsman”) + -ium (“-y”, forming actions), from op- (“work”) + -i- (connective) + -fex (combining form of faciō (“to do, to make”)). In the religious sense, Displaced native Old English hād. The computing sense is a genericization of various proprietary program suites, such as Microsoft Office.

verb/ˈɒf.ɪs/Received-Pronunciation/ˈɔf.ɪs/Australia, British, New-Zealand, Southern, Standard/ˈɔ.fɪs/General-American/ˈɑ-/General-American, cot-caught-merger
  1. To provide (someone) with an office.

  2. To have an office.

    intransitive
Where this word comes from

From Middle English office, from Old French office, from Latin officium (“personal, official, or moral duty; official position; function; ceremony, esp. last rites”), contracted from opificium (“construction: the act of building or the thing built”), from opifex (“doer of work, craftsman”) + -ium (“-y”, forming actions), from op- (“work”) + -i- (connective) + -fex (combining form of faciō (“to do, to make”)). In the religious sense, Displaced native Old English hād. The computing sense is a genericization of various proprietary program suites, such as Microsoft Office.

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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.