crusader
Americannoun
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Often Crusader a participant in any of the crusades or military expeditions undertaken with papal sanction by the Christians of Europe in the 11th, 12th, and 13th centuries in an effort to recover the Holy Land from the Muslims.
Orders of monks who were also knights became the "storm troops" of the Christian crusaders.
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a participant in any vigorous movement for the defense or advancement of an idea, cause, etc..
Nepal's most prominent crusader for equal rights for sexual minorities was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of crusader
Explanation
A crusader is a person who works hard or campaigns forcefully for a cause. Most crusaders advocate dramatic social or political change. You can call a fierce champion for a cancer cure a crusader, and another kind of crusader could be an activist who works for school reform. Crusaders tend to be radical or at least progressive, embracing some kind of change. Crusader comes from crusade, which meant "campaign against a public evil" in the 18th century, but which earlier referred mainly to the religious-based military Crusades of the Middle Ages.
Vocabulary lists containing crusader
Crash
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Matilda
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The Door in the Wall
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
They tried to get a firm affiliated with environmental crusader Erin Brockovich interested.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 12, 2026
Kareen Hill, 27, of New York, is another microtrip crusader on social media.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 31, 2026
A self-styled anti-corruption crusader, Yoon rose from star prosecutor to South Korean president in just a few years.
From Barron's ● Feb. 19, 2026
Medroso alternatively played the roles of detective, crusader and plaintiff.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 6, 2025
Ordinarily he was a regular kid, minding his own business with no tinge of the crusader or fanatic about him.
From "The Chocolate War" by Robert Cormier
Antidebt crusaders, like the personal-finance radio host Dave Ramsey, have been speaking for years about how paying thousands of dollars in interest can seriously impede a family’s ability to make progress on their other goals.
From MarketWatch ● Apr. 9, 2026
The spread of this new orthodoxy shouldn’t be surprising, for as the author notes, “insatiability is a defining feature of moral crusades. As crusaders achieve victories, they expand the scope of their crusade.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 28, 2026
You have Megan and Lois as the crusaders and the heads of their department who are hunting these killers.
From Salon ● Oct. 31, 2024
A problem of longer standing for anti-disinformation crusaders is encompassed in Brandolini’s Law, coined in 2013 by Alberto Brandolini, an Italian software engineer.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 22, 2024
Finally, the door swung closed 011 the last of the crusaders for Moorish dignity.
From "A Confederacy of Dunces" by John Kennedy Toole
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
