Jump To:

• pilgrim
  pilgrim

  noun

  a person who journeys, especially a long distance, to some sacred place as an act of religious devotion.
• Pilgrim
  Pilgrim

  noun

  See Canterbury Pilgrims

pilgrim

American  

[pil-grim, -gruhm] / ˈpɪl grɪm, -grəm /

noun

• pilgrims
  plural

1. a person who journeys, especially a long distance, to some sacred place as an act of religious devotion.

   pilgrims to the Holy Land.

2. a traveler or wanderer, especially in a foreign place.

3. an original settler in a region.

4. (initial capital letter) one of the band of Puritans who founded the colony of Plymouth, Mass., in 1620.

5. a newcomer to a region or place, especially to the western U.S.

---

pilgrim ¹ British  

/ ˈpɪlɡrɪm /

noun

1. a person who undertakes a journey to a sacred place as an act of religious devotion

2. any wayfarer

---

Pilgrim ² British  

/ ˈpɪlɡrɪm /

noun

1. See Canterbury Pilgrims

---

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• pilgrimatic
  adjective
• pilgrimatical
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• pilgrims
  plural

---

Etymology

Origin of pilgrim

First recorded in 1150–1200; Middle English pelegrim, pilegrim, cognate with Old Frisian pilegrīm, Middle Low German pelegrīm, Old High German piligrīm, Old Norse pīlagrīmr, all from Medieval Latin pelegrīnus, dissimilated variant of Latin peregrīnus peregrine

---

Explanation

You might be a Muslim on your way to Mecca, or a Hindu going to the Ganges, or a Christian traveling to Lourdes. When you make a reverent journey to a place you consider sacred, you're a pilgrim. You can also use the word less seriously and call yourself a pilgrim when you make the trip to Graceland for Elvis Week. Another kind of pilgrim (often spelled with a capital P) are the Puritans who fled religious persecution in Europe, came over on the Mayflower, and founded Plymouth Colony, in Massachusetts. The word comes from the Latin peregrinus, "foreign," or "a foreigner," and if you just travel to foreign countries, you’re a pilgrim, too.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

pilgrim Pilgrim pilgrims

“I’m just a weary pilgrim trying to find what feels like home,” she sings.

From Salon ● Aug. 28, 2026

The treks flourished throughout the Middle Ages, faded, then rebounded from a niche spiritual journey to a global escape hatch; in 2025, the pilgrim office handed out 530,000 certificates of completion, or compostelas.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 25, 2026

Every person is a pilgrim on their own grief journey.

From Slate ● Apr. 23, 2026

"After this year, will we be better able to recognise a pilgrim in the visitor, a seeker in the stranger, a neighbour in the foreigner, and fellow travellers in those who are different?"

From Barron's ● Jan. 6, 2026

Only officials were not wearing the Ihram garb, or the white skull caps, long, white, nightshirt-looking gown and the little slippers of the Mutawaf, those who guided each pilgrim party, and their helpers.

From "The Autobiography of Malcolm X" by Alex Malcolm X;Hailey

The startup, Pilgrim, has built a 50-pound tripod-mounted hardware device called Argus that is packed with sensors that combines air sampling and genomic sequencing to detect biological threats, like Ebola or anthrax.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 23, 2026

The investment in Pilgrim offers a window into how some of the leaders of major AI labs are thinking about the potential biological risks of AI that is smarter than humans.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 23, 2026

Pilgrim Fatemeh Moradi, 52, has been to the Arbaeen at least five times before, but said that this year is for "our martyred leader, on his behalf and on the behalf of all the martyrs".

From Barron's ● Aug. 1, 2026

Goodyear’s first branded blimp, Pilgrim, made its inaugural flight on June 3, 1925, and the famous airships have graced the skies ever since, photographing and filming Super Bowls, World Series, Olympics and more.

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 27, 2025

Last came Billy Pilgrim, empty-handed, bleakly ready for death.

From "Slaughterhouse-Five" by Kurt Vonnegut

Pope Leo reassured pilgrims that the mass was "well-contained" and caught "at an early stage".

From BBC ● Oct. 11, 2026

In late June, footage of a young Muslim man kicking a dog following Hindu pilgrims circulated widely on social media, triggering religious arguments online.

From BBC ● Oct. 5, 2026

Somewhere around Temple 31, Chikurin-ji, where pilgrims pray to a deity of mental clarity, it became clear: We should rewrite our whole map to add more of the Henro into our 1,250-mile trip.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 6, 2026

Another trek organiser Fishtail says it has lost contact with a group of 20 pilgrims, mostly Malaysians, who were travelling with guides and drivers.

From Barron's ● Sep. 3, 2026

All that was left of the old Thebes was Harmonia’s necklace, which was taken to Delphi and for hundreds of years shown to the pilgrims there.

From "Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes" by Edith Hamilton

Random Word

Spin the wheel and learn a new word!

---

Related Words

• settler
• traveler

---