Added 7 October 2026
office
/ˈɒf.ɪs/ noun
In Latin: officium Wiktionary
noun Definition from WordNet 3.1, Princeton University. Pronunciation from Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org. More about office at Wordnik → Where our words come from →
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Place of business where professional or clerical duties are performed.
he rented an office in the new building
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An administrative unit of government.
the Central Intelligence Agency
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The actions and activities assigned to or required or expected of a person or group.
the function of a teacher
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.
From Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org (CC BY-SA)