Avenge

//əˈvɛnd͡ʒ// noun, verb

noun, verb ·Uncommon ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    An act of vengeance; a revenge. archaic
Verb
  1. 1
    To take vengeance (for); to exact satisfaction for by punishing the injuring party; to vindicate by inflicting pain or evil on a wrongdoer. transitive

    "to avenge the murder of his brother"

  2. 2
    take revenge for a perceived wrong wordnet
  3. 3
    To revenge oneself (on or upon someone). reflexive
  4. 4
    To take vengeance. intransitive, obsolete

    "Thou shalt not auenge nor beare any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt loue thy neighbor as thy selfe: I am the Lord."

  5. 5
    To treat revengefully; to wreak vengeance on. archaic, transitive

    "thy judgment in avenging thine enemies"

Synonyms

All synonyms
revengepunishretaliateavenge oneselfavengementavenging

Example

More examples

"He will avenge the people on their oppressor."

Etymology

From Middle English avengen, borrowed from Old French avengier, from a- (“upon”) + vengier, from Latin vindicō, vindicāre.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.