avenger

American  

[uh-ven-jer] / əˈvɛn dʒər /

noun

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.

---

Etymology

Origin of avenger

aveng(e) ( def. ) + -er ¹ ( def. )

Example Sentences

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

A pair of abuelas named Dina and Mita go into avenger mode when a young guy grabs the last bag of Dinamita chips.

From New York Times • Feb. 11, 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

Hal Prince, in his original 1979 production, made Sweeney an avenger of Victorian era industrialization.

From Los Angeles Times • May 23, 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