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# offensiveness

noun (offensiveness, uncountable)

«offensiveness» in the English dictionary: everyday — its meanings, how the lessons use it, and examples, each with its tree on Mova.

## Everyday

1. Offensiveness is the quality of being rude or hurtful, so that it upsets or insults people. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/O/offensiveness/#m1)
2. Being very unpleasant to the senses: the offensiveness of a smell. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/O/offensiveness/#m2)

### In the lessons

In ethics and online safety lessons: the offensiveness of a joke or comment. In media: films are rated partly for the offensiveness of the language. It tells the reader how much something hurts or insults.

### Examples

- The offensiveness of his joke shocked the class. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/O/offensiveness/#x1)
- People complained about the offensiveness of the advert. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/O/offensiveness/#x2)
- Swear words are graded by their offensiveness. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/O/offensiveness/#x3)
- She did not see the offensiveness of what she said. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/O/offensiveness/#x4)
- The offensiveness of the smell made us hold our noses. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/O/offensiveness/#x5)
- We discussed the offensiveness of name-calling. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/O/offensiveness/#x6)

### Note

Uncountable. From offensive (rude) + -ness. Related: offend, offence (UK) / offense (US). Trap: «offensive» in sport means attacking, but «offensiveness» is almost always about rudeness.

## On Mova

- [Trees and pragmatics of «offensiveness» in the school dictionary](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/O/offensiveness/): every meaning and example parsed by Mova, with its dependency tree and frames.
- [«offensiveness» in the school dictionary](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/dictionaries/school/w/offensiveness.html) on Mova free.