A victim is someone who has been harmed, injured, or suffered because of something bad that happened to them. A victim of a robbery has had their belongings stolen. Victims of a hurricane lost their homes or property in the storm. A victim of bullying has been targeted and mistreated by others.

Today the word almost always refers to people who've experienced harm through no fault of their own. There's an important difference between being a victim and being at fault: victims didn't cause or deserve what happened to them.

Sometimes people talk about having a victim mentality, which means focusing so much on past hurts that you feel unable to move forward or improve things. But this doesn't change the fact that actual victims deserve sympathy, support, and help recovering from what happened to them.

When someone victimizes another person, they're deliberately causing harm. A scam artist victimizes people by tricking them out of their money. The word reminds us that behind every crime, accident, or injustice, there are real people who've suffered real harm.