Scapegoat Meaning
/ˈskeɪpˌɡoʊt/Definition, CEFR level C1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
nounIn the Mosaic Day of Atonement ritual, a goat symbolically imbued with the sins of the people, and sent out alive into the wilderness while another was sacrificed.
nounSomeone unfairly blamed or punished for some failure.
Sentence Examples
They're looking for a scapegoat.
He's always the scapegoat.
I'm no scapegoat to take it lying down.
CEFR Practice Quiz
The manager made John the ____ for the team's failure, even though John did nothing wrong.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The junior employee became the ____ for the project's failure despite having little responsibility.
Word Origin & History
From scape + goat; coined by English biblical scholar and translator William Tyndale, interpreting Biblical Hebrew עֲזָאזֵל (“azazél”) (Leviticus 16:8, 10, 26), from an interpretation as coming from עֵז (ez, “goat”) and אוזל (ozél, “escapes”). First attested 1530. Compare English scapegrace, scapegallows.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"And Aarõ caſt lottes ouer the .ij. gootes: one lotte for the Lorde, ãd another for a ſcapegoote."
— 1530 January 27 (Gregorian calendar), W[illiam] T[yndale], transl., [The Pentateuch] (Tyndale Bible), Malborow [Marburg], Hesse: […] Hans Luft [actually Antwerp: Johan Hoochstraten], →OCLC, Leuiticus xvj:[8], folio XXIX, verso:
"[…]; alluding herein unto the heart of man, and the precious bloud of our Saviour; who was typified indeed by the Goat that was ſlain, and the ſcape Goat in the wilderneſſe;"
— 1650, Thomas Browne, “Compendiously of Sundry Other Common Tenents, Concerning Minerall and Terreous Bodies, Which Examined, Prove Either False or Dubious”, in Pseudodoxia Epidemica: […], 2nd edition, London: […] A[braham] Miller, for Edw[ard] Dod and Nath[aniel] Ekins, […], →OCLC, 2nd book, page 64:
"The new Secretary of State had been long sick of the perfidy and levity of the First Lord of the Treasury, and began to fear that he might be made a scapegoat to save the old intriguer who, imbecile as he seemed, never wanted dexterity where danger was to be avoided."
— 1834, Thomas Babington Macaulay, William Pitt, Earl of Chatham:
"Corbett says Railtrack was under great pressure in the aftermath, as it was the scapegoat even though the signal had been working properly."
— 2026 March 4, Christian Wolmar, “Railtrack: what really happened”, in RAIL, number 1056, page 53:
"People tend to fear and then to scapegoat ... groups which seem to them to be fundamentally different from their own."
— 1950, Rachel Davis DuBois, Neighbors in Action: A Manual for Local Leaders in Intergroup Relations, page 37:
Explore More C1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
The manager made John the ____ for the team's failure, even though John did nothing wrong.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The junior employee became the ____ for the project's failure despite having little responsibility.