Meaning & use
survivor
Last updated
Meanings
nouncountable
Someone who is still alive after a disaster, illness, attack or other dangerous event.
Grammar: Often followed by of: a survivor of a plane crash.
Patterns
- a survivor of something
- a survivor from something
She is a cancer survivor who now volunteers at the hospital.
Rescuers found three survivors in the wreckage.
The memorial honors survivors of the earthquake.
nouncountableapproving
A person or thing that continues to cope, last or succeed despite hardship or change.
Grammar: Often shows admiration: he is a survivor, someone who always bounces back.
Patterns
- a political/business survivor
- a survivor in something
My aunt lost her job twice but landed on her feet; she's a real survivor.
That little corner shop is a survivor of the old high street.
The oak is the only survivor of the original forest.
Word forms
| plural | survivors |
|---|
Common combinations
- a sole survivor
- He was the sole survivor of the shipwreck.
- a cancer survivor
- As a cancer survivor, she speaks at charity events.
- crash survivor
- The crash survivor described the moments after impact.
- a trauma survivor
- The support group is open to every trauma survivor.
- a born survivor
- Nothing keeps her down; she is a born survivor.
- survivors of abuse
- The charity helps survivors of abuse rebuild their lives.
Synonyms and how they differ
- victim
- Victim stresses harm that was suffered, while survivor stresses that the person lived through it.
- fighter
- Fighter praises someone's determination and need not mean they survived anything in particular.
- remnant
- Remnant is used for the small part of a thing left over, not for a person who lived through danger.
Opposites
Word family
- survive verb
- to stay alive or continue to exist
- survival noun
- the fact of continuing to live or exist
- surviving adjective
- still alive or still existing
- survivable adjective
- possible to live through, as in a survivable crash
- survivalist noun
- a person who prepares to live through a disaster
Commonly confused: survivor or survival?
survivor vs survival
Survival is the state or act of surviving, not the person; the person is the survivor.
Practice
After the ferry sank, rescuers found twelve ___ clinging to the wreckage.
Choose one answer.
Survivors are the people who lived through the event. Survival is a state, and survivalists are people who prepare for disasters.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “survivor”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.