Synonyms of scapegoat
8 similar words
Another word for scapegoat is patsy. Other synonyms of scapegoat are fall guy, whipping boy, sacrificial lamb, escapegoat and folk devil.
Synonyms and similar words for scapegoat
nounSomeone unfairly blamed or punished for some failure.
- fall guyA scapegoat.
- patsy
- whipping boySomeone punished for the errors of others.
nounMore synonyms
- sacrificial lamb
- escapegoat
- folk devilA person or type of person blamed by the public for various ills, as during a moral panic.
- goat informalA scapegoat.
- Joe Soap BritishA foolish stooge or scapegoat.
Meaning of scapegoat
- noun In 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.
- noun Someone unfairly blamed or punished for some failure.
- verb To unfairly blame or punish someone for some failure; to make a scapegoat of.
scapegoat in other languages
Questions about synonyms of scapegoat
- What is another word for scapegoat?
- Scapegoat has 8 synonyms on Word.ws, such as patsy, fall guy, whipping boy, sacrificial lamb, escapegoat, folk devil, goat and Joe Soap.
- What does scapegoat mean?
- Scapegoat means in 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.
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: scapegoat (page history and authors) and the entries of the words listed. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws grouped the synonyms and antonyms by meaning and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Cite this page: “Synonyms of scapegoat.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/synonyms/scapegoat. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.