peacemaker

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)

• IPA^(key): /ˈpiːsmeɪkə(ɹ)/

• Audio (US):

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peacemaker (plural peacemakers)

1. A person who restores peace, especially by settling disputes; one who engages in peacemaking.

   Antonyms: warmonger, troublemaker, peacebreaker

   Coordinate terms: arbiter; intermediary; warmaker, warfighter, warrior; peacemonger

   • 1526, [William Tyndale, transl.], The Newe Testamẽt […] (Tyndale Bible), [Worms, Germany: Peter Schöffer], →OCLC, Matthew v:[9]:

     Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shalbe called the chyldren of God.

   • 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^[1]:

     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.

   • 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^[2], page 154:

     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.

   • 1890, Daniel Webster Jones, Forty Years Among the Indians; A True Yet Thrilling Narrative of the Author's Experiences Among the Natives‎^[3], pages 169-70:

     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.

   • 1989 September 3, R. W. Apple, Jr., “Carter the Peacemaker Now Turns to Ethiopia”, in The New York Times‎^[4], archived from the original on 25 May 2015:

     Mr. Carter has celebrated experience as a peacemaker: he mediated the 1978 peace talks between Israel and Egypt at Camp David.

   • 2025 June 18, Zachary B. Wolf, quoting Donald Trump, “Trump promised a peacemaker presidency. What happened?”, in CNN‎^[5], archived from the original on 19 August 2025:

     “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.

2. (non-native speakers' English, medicine) Catachresis for pacemaker.
   • 2010, M. Valderrama, V. Navarro, M. Le Van Quyen, “Heart rate variability as measurement of heart-brain interactions”, in Epilepsies:

     Indeed, although the activity of the heart depends on the intrinsic rhythm of its peacemaker […]

   • 2014, S. Samad, SA. Khan, A. Haq, A. Riaz, “Classification of arrhythmia”, in International Journal of Electrical Energy:

     The “heart’s peacemaker” is the node from which the electrical signal for heart beat are […]

• Peacemaker

• "In Tune" – Dr. Skip Moen, skipmoen.com (2 May 2008)