In sports, offense (

American spelling Despite the various English dialects spoken from country to country and within different regions of the same country, there are only slight regional variations in English orthography, the two most notable variations being British and American ...

) or offence ( Commonwealth spelling, see

spelling differences Despite the various English dialects spoken from country to country and within different regions of the same country, there are only slight regional variations in English orthography, the two most notable variations being British and American ...

; pronounced with first-syllable stress; from Latin '' offensus''), known as attack outside of North America, is the action of attacking or engaging an opposing team with the objective of scoring points or goals. The term may refer to the tactics involved in offense, or a sub-team whose primary responsibility is offense. Generally,

goals A goal is an objective that a person or a system plans or intends to achieve. Goal may also refer to: Sport * Goal (sports), a method of scoring in many sports, or the physical structure or area where scoring occurs ** Goals, the goal frame in ...

are scored by teams' offenses, but in sports such as

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

it is common to see defenses and

special teams In American football, the specific role that a player takes on the field is referred to as their "position". Under the modern rules of American football, both teams are allowed 11 players on the field at one time and have "unlimited free substitu ...

(which serve as a team's offensive unit on kicking plays and defensive on returning plays) score as well. The fielding side in

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

is also generally known as the ''bowling attack'' despite the batting side being the side that scores runs, because they can prevent batting players from scoring by getting them out, and end the batting team's scoring turn by getting them all out. In countries outside North America, the term ''offence'' is almost always taken to mean an infraction of the rules, a penalty or foul, and ''attack'' is more likely to be used where Americans would use ''offense''.

See also