VICTIM Synonyms: 68 Similar and Opposite Words

victim

noun

ˈvik-təm

Definition of victim

as in fatality

a person or thing harmed, lost, or destroyed helped the victims of the fire

Synonyms & Similar Words

Relevance

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

as in target

a person or thing that is the object of abuse, criticism, or ridicule the victim of schoolyard teasing

Synonyms & Similar Words

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

as in sacrifice

something offered to a god the Aztecs are believed to have sacrificed thousands of victims annually to the sun

Synonyms & Similar Words

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Recent Examples of victim As the victim turned to get the water, the attacker began stabbing him, according to Din. — Reuters, NBC news, 15 July 2026 Altogether, Lopez has spent seven years assigned to special victims and human trafficking investigations. — Verónica Egui Brito july 15, Miami Herald, 15 July 2026 The youngest victim was 5-year-old Dayana Arlotti, who died alongside her father Williams Arlotti, who drowned while trying to find a lifeboat, according to court documents obtained by The Guardian. — Caroline Blair, PEOPLE, 15 July 2026 About 40 minutes later, police received a call from a hospital saying a shooting victim, later identified as Weintraub, arrived in a silver Ford Mustang with life-threatening gunshot wounds. — Kansas City Star, 15 July 2026 See All Example Sentences for victim

Recent Examples of Synonyms for victim

Noun

The most recent fatality was on July 11, when a 64-year-old Greek hiker died after collapsing on a trail.

— ABC News, ABC News, 18 July 2026
The eighth fatality was at a similar center in Elektrostal in the Moscow region.

— Tim Lister, CNN Money, 18 July 2026

Definition of fatality

Noun

Thiel is a serious intellectual shaped by René Girard, his mentor at Stanford, whose mimetic theory of violence and sacrifice underpins much of how Thiel sees the world.

— Nick Lichtenberg, Fortune, 18 July 2026
For some, evoking death and sacrifice was perplexing and distasteful; a step too far.

— Harry Booth, Time, 17 July 2026

Definition of sacrifice

Noun

Amaroq Weiss, senior wolf advocate at the Center for Biological Diversity, questioned the methodology, saying researchers collected scat only along roads and trails while excluding brushy areas where wolves may eat smaller prey.

— Scott Lebar. Story produced with AI assistance, Sacbee.com, 15 July 2026
Born in 1946 amid the bombing of Frankfurt, Ruppert instead developed a psychosexual cosmology that rejected neat distinctions between prey and predator.

— Tessa Solomon, ARTnews.com, 15 July 2026