survivor guilt

1. 1.

   a deep feeling of guilt often experienced by those who have survived some catastrophe that took the lives of many others; derives in part from a feeling that they did not do enough to save the others who perished and in part from feelings of being unworthy relative to those who died

   “survivor guilt was first noted in those who survived the Holocaust”

   Broaderguilt

   Part ofposttraumatic stress disorder

Questions about survivor guilt

What does survivor guilt mean?

survivor guilt means "a deep feeling of guilt often experienced by those who have survived some catastrophe that took the lives of many others; derives in part from a feeling that they did not do enough to save the others who perished and in part from feelings of being unworthy relative to those who died".

Is survivor guilt a common word?

survivor guilt is banded "Rare" — specialist or archaic — most readers will not have met it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.