Link Centre Dictionary

office

of·fice

UK/ˈɒf.ɪs/ US/ˈɔf.ɪs/ very common slang uk us

noun

1.

place of business where professional or clerical duties are performed

  • “he rented an office in the new building”
Synonyms
2.

an administrative unit of government

  • “the Central Intelligence Agency”
  • “the Census Bureau”
  • “Office of Management and Budget”
  • “Tennessee Valley Authority”
Synonyms
3.

the actions and activities assigned to or required or expected of a person or group

  • “the function of a teacher”
  • “the government must do its part”
  • “play its role”
Synonyms
4.

(of a government or government official) holding an office means being in power

  • “being in office already gives a candidate a great advantage”
  • “during his first year in office”
  • “during his first year in power”
  • “the power of the president”
Synonyms
5.

professional or clerical workers in an office

  • “the whole office was late the morning of the blizzard”
Synonyms
6.

a religious rite or service prescribed by ecclesiastical authorities

  • “the offices of the mass”
7.

a job in an organization

  • “he occupied a post in the treasury”
Synonyms

Origin

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.

Phrases

  • 610 Office
  • back office
  • booking office
  • box office
  • box-office bomb
  • branch office
  • chain of office
  • circumlocution office

Related words

Word family

Broader terms

Narrower terms

Parts

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.