Acceptable
Acceptable adjective - Of a level of quality that meets one's needs or standards.
Offensive is an antonym for acceptable.
Offensive
Offensive adjective - Causing intense displeasure, disgust, or resentment.
Usage example: the smell of rotting food is quite offensive
Acceptable is an antonym for offensive.
Both words in one sentence
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Reality Ensues: This film shows the risk of trying to make contact with an alien race: they may take what is acceptable and harmless to us as something offensive and threatening to them.
Source: Film / Pixels - Considered offensive, but acceptable in some contexts, (for example, there's an Irish bookmakers called "Paddy Power", and a brand of Irish Whiskey called, simply, "Paddy") and almost completely innocuous when it's used as a nickname for someone named Patrick.
Source: Useful Notes / British English -
Straw Losers usually fall under Acceptable Lifestyle Targets - this is typically the safest way to show them as being uncool in such a way that isn't blatantly offensive.
Source: Straw Loser
Cite this Source
Offensive and Acceptable. (2016). Retrieved 2026, July 29, from https://thesaurus.plus/related/acceptable/offensive
Acceptable & Offensive. N.p., 2016. Web. 29 Jul. 2026. <https://thesaurus.plus/related/acceptable/offensive>.
Offensive or Acceptable. 2016. Accessed July 29, 2026. https://thesaurus.plus/related/acceptable/offensive.
Google Ngram Viewer shows how "acceptable" and "offensive" have occurred on timeline