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Pronunciation

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Singular
defense

Plural
defenses

Defense is on the Academic Vocabulary List.
  1. (uncountable) Defense is the process of protecting.
    The secretary of defense met with the president at the White House.
    Airplanes attacked the Ministry of Defense in Tehran.
    Clinton's lawyers will lay out his defense next week.
    Police officers can only shoot in self defense or to protect another person's life.
    When he was accused, his friends and even some people who have never met him rushed to his defense.
  2. (uncountable), (law) In a court case, the defense is the person who was accused of a crime together with their lawyer.
    His defense lawyers say that Honecker did not shoot the gun.
  3. (countable & uncountable), (sports) The defense is the players who are supposed to stop the other team from scoring points.
    I wasn't very satisfied with the play of our offense, but our defense played great.

Synonyms

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