survivor

survivor — noun

1. someone who stays alive after an accident, disaster, illness, or attack that kil

1.nounB2
Definition

someone who stays alive after an accident, disaster, illness, or attack that killed or seriously hurt other people.

Example

Rescuers pulled the last survivor from the collapsed building on Tuesday morning.

common collocation: pull a survivor from

Only three survivors of the plane crash were found near the mountain village.

pattern: survivor of + disaster event

Common collocations
  • sole survivor
  • lone survivor
  • only survivor
  • cancer survivor
  • crash survivor
  • rescue a survivor
  • search for survivors
Synonyms
  • casualty

    opposite — refers to someone killed or injured, not someone who lived

  • remnant

    more abstract; suggests a small remaining group, not always after danger

Antonyms
  • victim

    in many contexts a victim died or was harmed; a survivor lived through it

  • casualty

    someone killed or seriously injured in the event

Grammar Patterns

survivor of + event

Usage Note

Often appears with 'of' plus the dangerous event (survivor of cancer, of war, of the crash). Frequently modified by 'sole', 'lone', or 'only' when one person lived through something that killed many.

Common Mistakes

She is a survivor from cancer.
She is a cancer survivor.' or 'She is a survivor of cancer.
use 'of', or place the danger word before 'survivor' like a compound noun.

2. someone with a strong character who keeps going and rebuilds their life after bi

2.nounB2
Definition

someone with a strong character who keeps going and rebuilds their life after big problems such as job loss, divorce, abuse, or financial trouble.

Example

After losing the bakery and her marriage in one year, Élise proved she was a true survivor.

collocation: a true / real survivor

Don't worry about Selim — he's a survivor and will land another job soon.

informal reassurance about resilience

Common collocations
  • a true survivor
  • a real survivor
  • a born survivor
  • natural survivor
Synonyms
  • fighter

    stresses active resistance more than endurance

  • battler

    informal, especially Australian English; someone who keeps trying despite hardship

Antonyms
  • quitter

    informal; someone who gives up when things get hard

Grammar Patterns

a (real / true / born) survivor

Usage Note

Often used as a compliment about character, with no preceding 'of' phrase. Distinguish from sense 1: here the danger is emotional or financial hardship, not a life-threatening event.

Common Mistakes

He is survivor.
He is a survivor.
this sense almost always takes the indefinite article 'a'.

3. the family members, usually a husband, wife, or children, who are still alive af

3.nounC1
Definition

the family members, usually a husband, wife, or children, who are still alive after someone has died, especially as listed in an obituary or a will.

Example

Mr. Chidi's survivors include his wife, two daughters, and four grandchildren in Lagos.

formal obituary pattern: survivors include

The pension will be paid to the survivors named in Noa's will.

legal context: survivors named in a will

Common collocations
  • survivors include
  • leave survivors
  • named as survivors
  • immediate survivors
Synonyms
  • next of kin

    the closest living relative, often singular and used for legal notification

  • heirs

    those who inherit property, which may overlap with survivors but is about inheritance

  • dependents

    people who relied on the deceased financially

Grammar Patterns

[possessive] survivors include...

Usage Note

Typical of obituaries, wills, and insurance documents; rare in everyday speech. Almost always plural and possessed (his survivors, her survivors), and usually paired with verbs like 'include' or 'are listed as'.

Common Mistakes

My survivors visited me yesterday.
My relatives visited me yesterday.
survivors in this sense are people you leave behind after your death, not living relatives in general.

Word family

Synonym discussion

Sense: noun/1

All three words describe people affected by a disaster, accident, or attack, but they point to very different outcomes. A 'survivor' is someone who lived through the event — the focus is on continued life and often on resilience: 'the only survivor of the fire'. A 'victim' is someone harmed by the event, and depending on context they may have died, been injured, or simply been targeted: 'victims of fraud' (alive but cheated), 'victims of the earthquake' (often dead). A 'casualty' is the most clinical term, used by the military, news media, and emergency services to count the dead and seriously injured: 'civilian casualties were heavy'. Compare: 'There were 200 casualties and only 12 survivors,' where casualties and survivors are mutually exclusive.

survivor ↗victim ↗casualty ↗

Common collocations

Nouns

  • cancer survivor
  • crash survivor
  • war survivor
  • fire survivor
  • abuse survivor
  • Holocaust survivor

Phrases

  • sole survivor
  • lone survivor
  • only survivor
  • search for survivors
  • rescue survivors
  • no survivors

Prepositions

  • survivor of

Etymology

LatinAnglo-FrenchMiddle EnglishModern English

Formed from the verb 'survive' plus the agent suffix '-or', meaning 'one who does the action'. 'Survive' came into English in the late 15th century from Anglo-French 'survivre', based on Latin 'super-' ('above, beyond') and 'vivere' ('to live') — literally 'to outlive' or 'live beyond'. So a survivor is, at root, 'one who lives beyond' a danger or another person. The legal sense (a family member who outlives the deceased) appeared first in English law, and the broader sense of someone who has lived through hardship developed over the following centuries.