vengeance
Settling the score
Vengeance is retaliation for a wrong suffered—punishment inflicted on someone who has harmed you or yours.
Unlike revenge, which can be petty, vengeance often implies righteous or proportionate retribution: He swore vengeance against his brother's killers.
With a vengeance means with great intensity or force: The fever returned with a vengeance.
Punishment for wrongdoing
- paybackRetaliation for wrongs
- reprisalPunitive action in return
- retaliationPunitive response to injury
- counterstrikeRetaliatory military action
counterattack · requital · tit-for-tat · settling scores · reciprocity · quid pro quo · getting even · striking back
Prolonged retaliatory conflict
- blood feudInherited cycle of retribution
- nemesisPersistent source of ruin
- sworn enemyVowed lifelong adversary
- rivalryOngoing contest between opponents
bad blood · family honor · generational · clan · ancestral · hereditary · oath · vow
Fierce, punishing anger
resentment · bitterness · animosity · hostility · spite · malice · hatred · rancor
Extralegal justice-seeker
- punishmentPenalty for an offense
- reckoningSettlement of accounts
- judgmentReasoned decision-making capacity
- tribunalJudicial decision-making body
accountability · sentencing · execution · penalty · sentence · sanction · condemnation · conviction
Killing and wounding
- brutalitySavage, merciless behavior
- assaultViolent offensive act
- harmInjury or damage
- destructionAct of completely ruining
savagery · mayhem · carnage · slaughter · rampage · attack · ambush · murder
- Count of Monte CristoClassic revenge novel
- HamletDanish prince's revenge tragedy
- MedeaMythical infanticidal sorceress
- OldboyPrivileged network member
Kill Bill · John Wick · Furies · Erinyes · Nemesis · blood price · honor code
retribution
Punishment for wrongdoing
- paybackRetaliation for wrongs
- reprisalPunitive action in return
- retaliationPunitive response to injury
counterstrike · counterattack · requital · tit-for-tat · settling scores · reciprocity · quid pro quo · getting even · striking back · comeuppance
vendetta
Prolonged retaliatory conflict
- blood feudInherited cycle of retribution
- nemesisPersistent source of ruin
- sworn enemyVowed lifelong adversary
rivalry · bad blood · family honor · generational · clan · ancestral · hereditary · oath · vow · honor killing
wrath
Fierce, punishing anger
ire · resentment · bitterness · animosity · hostility · spite · malice · hatred · rancor · indignation
vigilante
Extralegal justice-seeker
- punishmentPenalty for an offense
- reckoningSettlement of accounts
- judgmentReasoned decision-making capacity
tribunal · accountability · sentencing · execution · penalty · sentence · sanction · condemnation · conviction · retributive justice
bloodshed
Killing and wounding
destruction · savagery · mayhem · carnage · slaughter · rampage · attack · ambush · murder · killing
Inigo Montoya
- Count of Monte CristoClassic revenge novel
- HamletDanish prince's revenge tragedy
- MedeaMythical infanticidal sorceress
Oldboy · Kill Bill · John Wick · Furies · Erinyes · Nemesis · blood price · honor code
- mythsmyth, legend, fable, fairy tale, folk tale
- vengeancevendetta, retribution, retaliation, payback, reprisal
- OsirisOsiris, Isis, Set, Horus, dismemberment
- retaliationretaliation, payback, reprisal, vendetta, tit for tat
- retributionretribution, payback, retaliation, reprisal, requital
- OresteiaOresteia, Orestes, Electra, Clytemnestra, Agamemnon
vengeanceforgiveness
Releasing resentment toward offenders
mercy · pardon · clemency · absolution · grace
vengeancereconciliation
Restoration of friendly relations
forgiveness · compassion · magnanimity · benevolence · peace
vengeancecompassion
Concern for others' distress
love · benevolence · kindness · sympathy · empathy
- with a vengeanceExtremely, intensely, forcefully
- vengeance weapon
- blood vengeanceRevenge for slain kin