defence

The word “defence” means the action of protecting someone or something from attack or harm.

“Defence” is pronounced dih-FEHNS (/dɪˈfɛns/ in IPA).

Here is “defence” used in a sentence: “The castle walls were built for defence against invaders.”

The opposite of “defence” — its antonyms — are offence and offense.

“Defence” is a noun.

The word “defence” comes from Late Latin. From Old French defens/defense, from Late Latin dēfēnsa ("protection"); it replaced the native Old English word bewering.

“Defence” is a fairly common word in modern English, usually learned at around the B1 level.

“Defence” has 3 distinct senses listed in this dictionary. The most common is: the action of protecting someone or something from attack or harm.

There is no difference in meaning. Defence is the standard British and Commonwealth spelling, while defense is the American spelling. Both refer to protecting someone or something from attack or harm. UK writers use defence; US writers use defense. The same split applies to related forms, though defensive is spelled the same everywhere.

The natural opposite is attack or offence, the act of striking rather than protecting. In sport, the defence tries to stop the opposing side from scoring, while the attack or offence tries to score. More broadly, aggression is the counterpart to defence, which is fundamentally a protective, reactive stance.

Defence covers many contexts: military defence protects a nation, self-defence protects a person, and legal defence protects an accused party in court. In sport it means guarding against the opposing team, and in psychology, defence mechanisms shield the mind. Each shares the core idea of guarding against attack or harm.