Dictionary

peacemaker en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /ˈpiːsmeɪkə(ɹ)/
• (US) audio

Etymology

Compound of peace + maker. First attested in the Tyndale Bible from 1526, as a translation of Koine Greek εἰρηνοποιοί (eirēnopoioí, “peacemaker”), a hapax legomenon found in the New Testament. (The Wycliffe Bible from 1395 instead uses "pesible men", to translate Latin pacifici from the Vulgate)

Meanings

1. A person who restores peace, especially by settling disputes; one who engages in peacemaking.
   • Mr. Carter has celebrated experience as a peacemaker: he mediated the 1978 peace talks between Israel and Egypt at Camp David. 1989 September 3, R. W. Apple, Jr., “Carter the Peacemaker Now Turns to Ethiopia”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 25 May 2015:
   • “That’s what I want to be: a peacemaker and a unifier,” he said. His time in office so far has not, at least not yet, been the era of peace. 2025 June 18, Zachary B. Wolf, quoting Donald Trump, “Trump promised a peacemaker presidency. What happened?”, in CNN, archived from the original on 19 Aug 2025:
   • Many times, in reflecting upon the subject, my feelings were to go and see the Indians personally. Although they were at war, and had been for some six or eight years and killed numbers of our people, breaking up whole districts, still I felt as though I would rather approach them as a peacemaker than as a fighter. 1890, Daniel Webster Jones, Forty Years Among the Indians; A True Yet Thrilling Narrative of the Author's Experiences Among the Natives, pages 169-70:
   • Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shalbe called the chyldren of God. 1526, [William Tyndale, transl.], The Newe Testamẽt […] (Tyndale Bible), [Worms, Germany: Peter Schöffer], →OCLC, Matthew v:[9]:
   • Loke therfore, O mercifull God, not vpon the sinnes which we continually commit: but vpon our mediatour & peacemaker Jesus Christ; that by his intercession thy wrath may be pacified, and we againe by thy fatherly countenance relieved and comforted. 1563, Church of England, A Fourme to be Vsed in Common Prayer Twyse a Weke, and Also an Order of Publique Fast, to be Vsed Euery Wednesday in the Weeke, Duryng this Tyme of Mortalitie, and Other Afflictions, Wherwith the Realme at this Present is Visited. Set Forth by the Quenes Maiesties Speciall Co[m]maundement, Expressed in Her Letters Hereafter Folowyng in the Next Page:
   • These two things premis’d, I come now to draw the character of the persons here stiled peacemakers. It is observed, and very justly, by more Commentators than one, that peacemakers are the same, as men of a peaceable mind and disposition; for as he that is inclined to lying, is said to make a lie because he delights in making it; and he that is habitually inclin’d to sin, ποιειν αμαρτιαν, to do sin or make it (for the original word is the same) because he delights in the practice of wickedness; in like manner, he that is prevailingly disposed to follow peace, may be stiled a peacemaker; the word denotes the habit of the mind, which is the same, equally amiable in its self, and in the sight of God, whether the peaceable man has an opportunity to make peace among others or no. 1742, Henry Grove, Thomas Amory, Sermons, Being Two Additional Volumes of the Posthumous Works of the Late Reverend Mr. Henry Grove, of Taunton · Volume 2, page 154:
2. (qualifier:non-native speakers' English) Catachresis for pacemaker.
   • The “heart’s peacemaker” is the node from which the electrical signal for heart beat are […] 2014, S. Samad, SA. Khan, A. Haq, A. Riaz, “Classification of arrhythmia”, in International Journal of Electrical Energy:
   • Indeed, although the activity of the heart depends on the intrinsic rhythm of its peacemaker […] 2010, M. Valderrama, V. Navarro, M. Le Van Quyen, “Heart rate variability as measurement of heart-brain interactions”, in Epilepsies:

Forms

Antonyms

warmonger · troublemaker · peacebreaker

Coordinates

warfighter · warmaker · peacemonger · intermediary · warrior · arbiter

Deriveds

Peacemaker

Synonyms

pacificator

Translations (68)

hu békeszerző (someone who restores peace, especially by settling disputes) · pl rozjemczyni (someone who restores peace, especially by settling disputes) · sv fredsstiftare (someone who restores peace, especially by settling disputes) · ro pacificatoare (someone who restores peace, especially by settling disputes) · cs usmiřovatelka (someone who restores peace, especially by settling disputes) · ru миротво́рец (someone who restores peace, especially by settling disputes) · grc εἰρηνοποιός (someone who restores peace, especially by settling disputes) · fa-ira صُلْحدَهَنْدِه (someone who restores peace, especially by settling disputes) · ar مُصْلِح (someone who restores peace, especially by settling disputes) · nl vredestichter (someone who restores peace, especially by settling disputes) · la pācificātor (someone who restores peace, especially by settling disputes) · fi rauhanrakentaja (someone who restores peace, especially by settling disputes) · nl pacificateur (someone who restores peace, especially by settling disputes) · vi người hoà giải (someone who restores peace, especially by settling disputes) · la pācātor (someone who restores peace, especially by settling disputes) · ko 피스메이커 (someone who restores peace, especially by settling disputes) · sl mirovnica (someone who restores peace, especially by settling disputes) · hy խաղաղարար (someone who restores peace, especially by settling disputes) · eu bakegile (someone who restores peace, especially by settling disputes) · mk миротворец (someone who restores peace, especially by settling disputes) · fa-ira مُصْلِح (someone who restores peace, especially by settling disputes) · ka დამზავებელი (someone who restores peace, especially by settling disputes) · fr pacificateur (someone who restores peace, especially by settling disputes) · tr arabulucu (someone who restores peace, especially by settling disputes) · it pacificatrice (someone who restores peace, especially by settling disputes) · fo friðarmillumgongufólk (someone who restores peace, especially by settling disputes) · sk zmierovateľ (someone who restores peace, especially by settling disputes) · ja ピースメーカー (someone who restores peace, especially by settling disputes) · sl mirovnik (someone who restores peace, especially by settling disputes) · crh barıştırıcı (someone who restores peace, especially by settling disputes) · cs mírotvůrkyně (someone who restores peace, especially by settling disputes) · uk миротво́рець (someone who restores peace, especially by settling disputes) · ar صانِعُ ٱلسَّلام (someone who restores peace, especially by settling disputes) · rue миротворец (someone who restores peace, especially by settling disputes) · cs mírotvorkyně (someone who restores peace, especially by settling disputes) · es pacificador (someone who restores peace, especially by settling disputes) · ka მშვიდობისმყოფელი (someone who restores peace, especially by settling disputes) · pl rozjemca (someone who restores peace, especially by settling disputes) · fo sáttasemjari (someone who restores peace, especially by settling disputes) · da fredsstifter (someone who restores peace, especially by settling disputes) · pt pacificador (someone who restores peace, especially by settling disputes) · el ειρηνοποιός (someone who restores peace, especially by settling disputes) · ko 조정자 (someone who restores peace, especially by settling disputes) · ro pacificator (someone who restores peace, especially by settling disputes) · cmn 仲裁人 (someone who restores peace, especially by settling disputes) · pl negocjator pokojowy (someone who restores peace, especially by settling disputes) · de Friedensstifterin (someone who restores peace, especially by settling disputes) · cmn 和事佬 (someone who restores peace, especially by settling disputes) · de Friedensstifter (someone who restores peace, especially by settling disputes) · it pacificatore (someone who restores peace, especially by settling disputes) · nb fredsstifter (someone who restores peace, especially by settling disputes) · bg миротво́рец (someone who restores peace, especially by settling disputes) · ka შემარიგებელი (someone who restores peace, especially by settling disputes) · be міратво́рац (someone who restores peace, especially by settling disputes) · sh миротво́рац (someone who restores peace, especially by settling disputes) · cs usmiřovatel (someone who restores peace, especially by settling disputes) · ja 仲裁人 (someone who restores peace, especially by settling disputes) · fr pacificatrice (someone who restores peace, especially by settling disputes) · ko 중재인 (someone who restores peace, especially by settling disputes) · cs mírotvůrce (someone who restores peace, especially by settling disputes) · bg помири́тел (someone who restores peace, especially by settling disputes) · bg помири́телка (someone who restores peace, especially by settling disputes) · fi rauhantekijä (someone who restores peace, especially by settling disputes) · yue 和事佬 (someone who restores peace, especially by settling disputes) · cs mírotvorce (someone who restores peace, especially by settling disputes) · sh mirotvórac (someone who restores peace, especially by settling disputes) · es pacificadora (someone who restores peace, especially by settling disputes) · sk mierotvorca (someone who restores peace, especially by settling disputes)

wikipedia: Wycliffe Bible · wikipedia: Tyndale Bible · wikipedia: peacemaker