victim

English Online Dictionary. What means victim‎? What does victim mean?

English

Etymology

From Middle French victime, from Latin victima (“sacrificial animal”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈvɪktɪm/
• (weak vowel merger) IPA^(key): /ˈvɪktəm/
• (weak vowel merger) Rhymes: -ɪktəm
• Hyphenation: vic‧tim

Noun

victim (plural victims)

1. One that is harmed—killed, injured, subjected to oppression, deceived, or otherwise adversely affected—by someone or something, especially another person or event, force, or condition; in particular:

   the youngest victims of the brutal war

   victim of a bad decision by a rushed and overworked judge

   1. One who is harmed or killed by a crime or scam.

      Antonyms: culprit, criminal, assailant, aggressor, offender

      victims of assault; the murderer's victims

      became another victim of the latest scam
   2. One who is harmed or killed by an accident or illness.

      a fundraiser for victims of AIDS; a victim of a car crash
   3. One who is harmed or killed as a result of other people's biases, emotions or incompetence, or their own.

      a victim of his own pride; a victim of her own incompetence

      the newcomer never managed to make friends, a victim of the town's deep distrust of outsiders

      a victim of sexism; victims of a racist system

   4. One who is harmed or killed as a result of a natural or man-made disaster or impersonal condition.

      relief efforts to help victims of the hurricane

      victim of an optical illusion; victim of a string of bad luck

      local businesses were the main victims of the economic downturn

      • 1970 March 12, United States House Committee on Education and Labor, Summary of Legislative Action of the House Education and Labor Committee for the 91st Congress (1st Session) / Educational Technology Act of 1969: Hearing, Ninety-first Congress, Second Session on H.R. 8838 ... March 12, 1970:

        To some extent the schools and colleges are victims of conditions beyond their control: rapid population growth and mobility, country; to-city migration, unpredictable economic and social changes wrought by technology, […]
2. A living being which is slain and offered as a sacrifice, usually in a religious rite.
   1. (by extension, Christianity) The transfigured body and blood of Christ in the Eucharist.

Usage notes

Many people advise against describing a disabled person as being a victim of the condition that relates to their status as a disabled person and suggest describing a disabled person as having or experiencing that condition instead.

Synonyms

• injured party

Antonyms

• offender

Derived terms

Related terms

• victimize, victimise
• victimization, victimisation
• victimism
• victimist

Translations

Verb

victim (third-person singular simple present victims, present participle victiming, simple past and past participle victimed)

1. (transitive, rare, now nonstandard) To make (something) a victim (especially of a ritual sacrifice); to victimize.

Derived terms

References

Further reading

• “victim”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• victim in Keywords for Today: A 21st Century Vocabulary, edited by The Keywords Project, Colin MacCabe, Holly Yanacek, 2018.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “victim”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
• “victim, v.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.