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.
3. Someone who refuses to take responsibility, reflect on themselves and change their attitude for the better and get defensive whenever called out on it.

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.
• “victim”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• “victim, v.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.