Offender

//əˈfen.də(ɹ)// noun

noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    One who gives or causes offense, or does something wrong.

    "Almost all down trains are late, however; the empty wagon trains are probably the worst offenders and one or two hours' late running by them is not unusual."

  2. 2
    a person who transgresses moral or civil law wordnet
  3. 3
    A person who commits an offense against the law, a lawbreaker.

Synonyms

All synonyms
delinquentwrongdoerbastardcriminalcrookculprit

Antonyms

All antonyms
victim

Example

More examples

"Such conduct would subject the offender to a heavy penalty."

Etymology

From Middle English offendour, offender, offendir, equivalent to offend + -er.

Related phrases

habitual offenderjuvenile offendermain offendernon-offenderrepeat offendersex offenderstatus offenderyoung offenderyouthful offender

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.