offering

English

Etymology

An offering of flowers and candles at the foot of the Croix de l'Évangile (Cross of the Gospel), a wayside cross in Paris, France.

From offer +‎ -ing. Displaced native Old English hūsl.

Pronunciation

Noun

offering (plural offerings)

  1. gerund of offer
    1. The act by which something is offered.
    2. That which has been offered; a sacrifice.
      votive offerings
      These are the bookstores' latest offerings.
    3. An oblation or presentation made as a religious act.
      • 1995, Glen Dudbridge, Religious Experience and Lay Society in T'ang China: a reading of Tai Fu's Kuang-i chi‎[1], Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, pages 69–70:
        In many ways an ancient well-established situation is in Place: a dead military hero has reappeared as a ghost bringing trouble and even death to the officials who come to administer the Hsiang-chou prefecture at An-yang; they build a temple in his honour and make him regular offerings of bloody food; he then protects and supports the administrators who are responsible.
    4. A contribution given at a religious service.
    5. Something put forth, bid, proffered or tendered, such as for sale
      • 1996, Caryn Franklin, Franklin on fashion:
        In recent seasons fetishwear has found its way onto the catwalk, with vinyl, PVC and lycra featuring among the most unlikely designer offerings.
      • 2025 June 26, Marnie Hunter, “This upstate New York town is a showstopper for scenery”, in CNN‎[2], Atlanta, Ga.: Warner Bros. Discovery, archived from the original on 9 July 2026:
        Ithaca is also a vibrant college town — home to Cornell University and Ithaca College — with more cultural offerings than its size would suggest, thanks in large part to the people those institutions attract.

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

offering

  1. present participle and gerund of offer
    • 2013 June 21, Oliver Burkeman, “The tao of tech”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 2, page 27:
      The dirty secret of the internet is that all this distraction and interruption is immensely profitable. Web companies like to boast about […], or offering services that let you "stay up to date with what your friends are doing", […] and so on. But the real way to build a successful online business is to be better than your rivals at undermining people's control of their own attention.

Further reading

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