Word.ws English Dictionary

battered person syndrome

battered person syndrome noun: a legal defense according to which a murderer had no choice but to kill their violent partner in response to cumulative abuse rather than a single provocation.

Noun

battered person syndrome (uncountable)

  1. A legal defense according to which a murderer had no choice but to kill their violent partner in response to cumulative abuse rather than a single provocation.

Origin of battered person syndrome

A more recent, gender-neutral formulation based on battered woman syndrome.

Questions about battered person syndrome

What does battered person syndrome mean?
Battered person syndrome means a legal defense according to which a murderer had no choice but to kill their violent partner in response to cumulative abuse rather than a single provocation.
What part of speech is battered person syndrome?
Battered person syndrome is a noun.

Words near battered person syndrome in the dictionary

  1. battercake
  2. battercakes
  3. battered
  4. battered baby syndrome
  5. battered child syndrome
  6. battered person syndrome
  7. battered sav
  8. battered savs
  9. battered woman syndrome
  10. batteree
  11. batterees

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: battered person syndrome (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-battered person syndrome.ogg.

Cite this entry: “battered person syndrome.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/battered_person_syndrome. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.