inoffensive

From in- + offensive.

• Audio (Southern England):

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inoffensive (comparative more inoffensive, superlative most inoffensive)

1. not offensive

   an inoffensive joke

   • 1765, Catherine Jemmat, The Memoirs of Mrs. Catherine Jemmat, Daughter of the Late Admiral Yeo, of Plymouth. Written by Herself, 2nd edition, volume I, London: Printed for the author, at Charing-Cross, →OCLC, page 145:

     [S]he was one of your ſoft ſpoken, canting, whining hypocrites, who with a truly jeſuitical art, could wreſt evil out of the moſt inoffenſive thought, word, look or action; […]

   • 1971, Lyndon Johnson, The Vantage Point‎^[1], Holt, Reinhart & Winston, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 180:

     On January 7, 1964, a group of American students at Balboa High School in the Panama Canal Zone set into motion events that soon threatened our relations with Panama and endangered operation of the Panama Canal. It was, on the surface, an inoffensive act: The students raised the American flag in front of the school.

2. harmless

   an inoffensive plant

• (all senses): innocuous

• IPA^(key): /i.nɔ.fɑ̃.siv/

• Audio (France (Lyon)):

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inoffensive

1. feminine singular of inoffensif

inoffensive

1. feminine plural of inoffensivo