avenger

American  

[uh-ven-jer] / əˈvɛn dʒər /

noun

avengers plural

1. a person who takes revenge for an offense.

   They feel that by engaging in terrorism they become the avengers of a great wrong done to their people.

2. a person who takes revenge on behalf of someone else.

   In the film, Zorro sees himself as the avenger of the innocent.

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• avengers
  plural

Etymology

Origin of avenger

aveng(e) ( def. ) + -er ¹ ( def. )

Explanation

A person who seeks revenge can be called an avenger. If you pay your brother back for eating all the cookies by finishing the last of his ice cream, you are an avenger of sorts. You may have heard of the comic book, TV, and movie superheroes called "The Avengers," but they're only one group of famous literary avengers. You could also call Shakespeare's Hamlet, who gets revenge for his father's death, an avenger. Most of the characters in the Greek classic "The Iliad" are avengers, too. The Old French root, avengier, means "to take revenge."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

avenger avengers

In the aftermath of the crime, newly minted fans of Mangione quickly fitted the man with revolutionary trappings, enshrining him as an avenger of working-class power.

From Slate ● May 1, 2026

In “Le Morte d’Arthur,” Thomas Malory brings an ancient world to life with the story of what happens when blind emotion overrides thought and vengeance becomes the ruin of the avenger.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 26, 2025

Sawai was magnificent for the way she deftly handled her character’s many facets — vassal, translator, warrior, lover, avenger.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 15, 2024

Constructed out of Japan’s postwar atomic-bomb trauma, the King of the Monsters has proven a remarkably malleable character, playing environmental protector or atomic avenger with equal aplomb.

From Scientific American ● Nov. 3, 2023

In attendance upon him was Anteros, said sometimes to be the avenger of slighted love, sometimes the one who opposes love; also Himeros or Longing, and Hymen, the God of the Wedding Feast.

From "Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes" by Edith Hamilton

The Black Panther Party co-founder was feared and hated by many Americans, and party members were dismissed as racist, gun-toting militants — Black avengers who believed violence was as American as cherry pie.

From Seattle Times ● Oct. 31, 2021

And her protagonist Cassie, played by Carey Mulligan, would be the scariest of all avengers: A real woman.

From Washington Times ● Dec. 23, 2020

After years watching glowering avengers trudge through the muck, their rippling shoulders buckling under the weight of the world, superheroes have a spring in their step again.

From Slate ● Apr. 2, 2019

In the dramas that would follow “The Sopranos,” from “Dexter” to “Breaking Bad” to “Jessica Jones,” individual justice regularly voids the social contract, serial killers become avengers and Avengers become the leveler of cities.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 10, 2019

It was such a thrill to be one of the archangels, the avengers, the chosen few.

From "Code Name Verity" by Elizabeth Wein