vendetta
Americannoun
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a private feud in which the members of the family of a murdered person seek to avenge the murder by killing the slayer or one of the slayer's relatives, especially such vengeance as once practiced in Corsica and parts of Italy.
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any prolonged and bitter feud, rivalry, contention, or the like.
a political vendetta.
noun
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a private feud, originally between Corsican or Sicilian families, in which the relatives of a murdered person seek vengeance by killing the murderer or some member of his family
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any prolonged feud, quarrel, etc
Other Word Forms
- vendettist noun
Etymology
Origin of vendetta
First recorded in 1850–55; from Italian, from Latin vindicta “vengeance”; see vindictive
Explanation
A vendetta is blood feud, a quest for revenge. A vendetta might separate families for generations, with members of one family murdering those of the other, all to satisfy an ancient grudge. If a friend of yours breaks into your locker and fills it with crumpled up newspaper, you will not be able to hold your head up until you have carried out a vendetta. Perhaps you can tie his shoes together during French class without his noticing?
Vocabulary lists containing vendetta
100 SAT Words Beginning with "V"
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2015 Spelling Bee - Words from Round 2
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Challenge, List 5
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Later Roman writers dressed up the Punic Wars as an ancestral vendetta of the Barcids, the family to which Hannibal belonged.
From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 11, 2026
He also said it was "staggering" that Netflix had given creative control to 50 Cent, who he described as "a longtime adversary with a personal vendetta".
From BBC • Dec. 2, 2025
He re-teamed with Pollack in “Jeremiah Johnson,” in which he played a mountain man who becomes the object of a vendetta.
From Los Angeles Times • Sep. 16, 2025
But making the main hero of "The Last of Us" the target of righteous vendetta invites viewers to reckon with the concept of justice long prescribed in Westerns.
From Salon • Apr. 21, 2025
Apparently Adolf Hitler has a vendetta against tobacco, finds it filthy and disgusting, and his military police and their assistants are not meant to smoke at work.
From "Code Name Verity" by Elizabeth Wein
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
