What does victim mean?
Victim is chiefly a noun meaning a person who is harmed, injured, or killed by a crime, accident, abuse, or other misfortune. It can also refer more broadly to someone unfairly mistreated, exploited, or left helpless by another person's actions. The term is used in legal, journalistic, educational, and ordinary conversational contexts, with “victim of crime” and “victim of abuse” among its commonest patterns. Although usually neutral, it can carry a suggestion of blame, as when someone is accused of adopting a “victim mentality.” As a less common verb, victim means “to make someone a victim,” usually in informal writing. The word's history sharpens its emotional force: it descends from Latin victima, “sacrificial animal,” and originally referred to an offering killed in a religious rite. Modern usage preserves the central idea of someone bearing another's harm.
A person who is harmed, injured, killed, or deprived as the result of a crime, accident, abuse, or other adverse event.
"The charity provides legal assistance and housing support to victims of domestic abuse."
The term is used in legal, journalistic, educational, and general contexts. It does not always imply innocence, although that association is common.
To make someone a victim of harm, abuse, deception, or unfair treatment.
"Fraudulent schemes victimized many elderly investors."
This use is less common than the verb victimize and is chiefly found in informal or literary writing.
The standard plural is victims; the possessive singular form is victim's.
"The witnesses described the attackers and identified several victims by clothing."
From a Latin word meaning “sacrificial animal,” victim once referred to a living offering killed at a ritual altar.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Where does victim come from?
Victim entered Middle English in the late Middle English period as vikim, through Anglo-French vitim from Latin victima. Latin victima originally denoted an animal sacrificed in a religious ritual; its ultimate verbal derivation is uncertain. French victime, Spanish víctima, Italian vittima, and Portuguese vítima are Romance cognates that developed from the same Latin word.
Related word forms
How victim is actually used
The noun is largely neutral in legal, journalistic, and educational contexts, though it can sound impersonal or place emphasis on harm rather than agency. In disputes, the term may be used to deny responsibility, while expressions such as “victim mentality” can be judgmental.