How to use offensive in a sentence

40 example sentences · adjective, noun

Offensive means causing offense; arousing a visceral reaction of disgust, anger, hatred, sadness, or indignation. Example: “Some people find pornography offensive.”

Examples of offensive by meaning

adjectiveCausing offense; arousing a visceral reaction of disgust, anger, hatred, sadness, or indignation.

Some people find pornography offensive.
An offensive smell.
A survey at Yale University had 63% of students wanting professors to issue “trigger warnings” before saying anything that some might find offensive or could cause painful emotions.2016 September 12, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, “Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: Political Incorrectness Is Just a Strategy”, in Time, archived from the...

adjectiveRelating to an offense or attack, as opposed to defensive.

The army's offensive capabilities. An offensive weapon.

adjectiveHaving to do with play directed at scoring.

The offensive coordinator is responsible for ordering all rushing plays.

nounAn attack.

The Marines today launched a major offensive.
In the winter of 1939–1940, the Nationalists launched an offensive against the outskirts of the Border Region.1971, Kenneth E. Shewmaker, “Closing the Door: 1939”, in Americans and Chinese Communists, 1927–1945: A Persuading Encounter, Cornell...
Israel has launched a major aerial and ground offensive into the occupied West Bank city of Jenin, its biggest military operation in the Palestinian territory in years, in what it described as an “extensive counter-terrorism effort”.2023 July 3, Bethan McKernan, Peter Beaumont, “Israel attacks Jenin in biggest West Bank incursion in 20 years”, in The Guardian, →ISSN

nounThe posture of attacking or being able to attack.

He took the offensive in the press, accusing his opponent of corruption.

More sentences with offensive

Using "gay" as a noun can be taken to be offensive.From the entry take
Polite dinner calls for persiflage rather than in-depth possibly offensive discussion.From the entry persiflage
The refit plan recommended that the first battalion be motorized to upgrade their offensive capabilities.From the entry motorize
Reclaimed words like "queer" or "gay" are usually offensive to the in-group when used by outsiders.From the entry reclaimed
Government officials think a universal malodor, or offensive odor, might prove effective as a non-lethal weapon.From the entry non-lethal
He's keeping his head down after being blasted for his offensive tweets.From the entry keep one's head down
I always play Lavaloon because it is such a good offensive deck.From the entry Lavaloon
The platoon braced itself for the dawn offensive.From the entry dawn
The offensive linemen tried to block the blitz.From the entry block
The right-wing paramilitary's offensive against the Marxist guerrillas failed because they did not know the terrain well enough.From the entry guerrilla
Fortunately his offensive remarks were off air.From the entry off air
Hayat Tahrir al-Sham’s sudden offensive on a major city has grabbed global attention but experts are not so surprised.From the entry Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham
I respect your right to feel offended, even though most people, myself included, totally disagree and don’t find the comment offensive in the slightest.From the entry respect
Officers spend thousands of hours sifting through potentially offensive posts and arrest 30 people a day.2025 May 15, “Europe’s free-speech problem”, in The Economist. From the entry collar
The Ukrainians, on the other hand, have started a new offensive into Russia.2025 March 19th, Torsten Heinrich, “Ukraine Invades Russia AGAIN! Trump Announces Partial Cease Fire! Ukraine SITREP”, in Military &…. From the entry Demidovka
Yet, a top leader’s use of derogatory casteist slurs was deeply offensive.2024 November 8, Mitra Pariyar, “Dahal’s casteist slurs”, in The Kathmandu Post. From the entry casteist
This also happened after the military catastrophe of the Ukrainian Balakliia offensive.2024 September 6th, Torsten Heinrich M.A. (channel name: “Military & History”), Russia’s Problem: Too few Soldiers!, via YouTube…. From the entry Balakliia
“At the moment, our army is fully coping with the offensives of Russian soldiers and equipment.”2022 March 4, John Branch, “He Won an Olympic Silver for Ukraine. Now He’s Hiding in a Kyiv Garage.”, in The New York Times. From the entry call up
Note: The offensive team must present a legal formation both before and after a shift.2020, NFL rule 7 section 4 article…. From the entry present
Laving aside offensive and defensive lineman who do so every play.2019, R.L. Sterup, Things You Can't Say About Sports, page 57. From the entry flag-happy
To have our grief colonized to facilitate a racist political agenda was beyond offensive.2017 June 13, One Year After Pulse, Don't You Dare Come for Any of Us (Lambda Legal). From the entry colonize
Hey 'bantz' merchants, your patter is offensive and not even puerile enough to be considered comedy.2014 May 2, Daisy Buchanan, “My five-point plan to ban banter”, in The Guardian. From the entry bantz
Dodge, Hudson, Packard, Curtis-Wright, Timken Axle and many other plants witnessed these settler working class offensives.2014 July 1, J. Sakai, Settlers: The Mythology of the White Proletariat from Mayflower to Modern, PM Press, →ISBN, page 225. From the entry hate strike
Sarkozy gave a defiant speech, going on the offensive and betraying no hint of having been beaten.2012 April 23, Angelique Chrisafis, “François Hollande on top but far right scores record result in French election”, in the Guardian. From the entry overture
Unchastity had to be penalized because, as the Bible showed, it was highly offensive to God.2012, Faramerz Dabhoiwala, The Origins of Sex, Penguin, published 2013, page 31. From the entry unchastity
Many were in rags, and not a few had their bodies covered with most offensive sores.2012, Hans Derks, History of the Opium Problem. From the entry plighty
The Word of the LORD is offensive to them; they find no pleasure in it" (Jer. 6:10).2011, Margaret Davis, Fear Not!: Is There Anything Too Hard for God?, →ISBN, page 268. From the entry uncircumcised
They can project electromagnetic radiation across a broad spectrum as an offensive weapon.2008, BioWare, Mass Effect, Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →ISBN, →OCLC, PC, scene: Geth: Hoppers Codex entry. From the entry cyberwarfare
Harassive in this context meaning - hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive.2006, Equality Commission for Northern Ireland, Harassment & Bullying in the Workplace. From the entry harassive
In the wake of the gayola scandal Mayor Christopher launched an offensive against homosexual drinking establishments.2006, Journal of the History of Sexuality. From the entry gayola
An offensive cyberweapon can be fashioned with a single, individual computer and a modem.2005, Mark Sauter, James Jay Carafano, Homeland security. From the entry cyberweapon

Meaning of offensive

adjective Causing offense; arousing a visceral reaction of disgust, anger, hatred, sadness, or indignation.
adjective Socially disrespectful; insensitive.
adjective Relating to an offense or attack, as opposed to defensive.

Full definition of offensive

Questions about offensive in a sentence

How do you use offensive in a sentence?: Offensive is used as an adjective and noun. For example: “Some people find pornography offensive.”
What is a short sentence with offensive?: “An offensive smell.”
What does offensive mean?: Offensive means causing offense; arousing a visceral reaction of disgust, anger, hatred, sadness, or indignation.

Adapted from Wiktionary: offensive (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Cite this page: “How to use offensive in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/offensive. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.