Meaning & use
branch office
Last updated
Meaning
nouncountable
A local office of a company or organization that is separate from its main headquarters.
Grammar: Countable; use 'a branch office' or 'branch offices'. Often followed by 'of' or 'in': a branch office of the bank in Leeds.
Patterns
- a branch office of something
- open a branch office
- work at a branch office
The company opened a branch office in Manchester last year.
She works at the bank's branch office downtown.
Our branch office handles customers in the north of the country.
Word forms
| plural | branch offices |
|---|
Common combinations
- open a branch office
- They plan to open a branch office in Tokyo next spring.
- a branch office of
- He manages a branch office of a large insurance company.
- local branch office
- You can pay your bill at any local branch office.
- head office and branch offices
- The head office makes the rules, and the branch offices follow them.
Synonyms and how they differ
- branch
- Shorter and more common in everyday speech; 'branch office' is fuller and more formal.
- local office
- Focuses on being near customers rather than on being part of a larger organization.
Opposites
Word family
- branch noun
- A local office or shop that is part of a larger organization.
Commonly confused: branch office or head office?
branch office vs head office
The head office is the main office that controls the organization; a branch office is a smaller local one.
Practice
The company has just opened a new ______ in Paris to serve European customers.
Choose one answer.
'A new branch office' fits because it is a single local office. 'Head office' and 'headquarters' mean the main controlling office, not a new local one, and 'branch offices' is plural, which does not match 'a new'.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “branch office”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.