jihad

American  

[ji-hahd] / dʒɪˈhɑd /

Or jehad

noun

• jihads
  plural

1. spiritual striving against moral failings, undertaken as a religious duty by Muslims.

2. armed struggle in defense of Islam: in traditional Muslim law, bound by a number of rules, conditions, and restrictions on when and where it is acceptable.

3. any vigorous, emotional crusade for an idea or principle.

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jihad British  

/ dʒɪˈhæd /

noun

1. Islam a holy war against infidels undertaken by Muslims in defence of the Islamic faith

2. Islam the personal struggle of the individual believer against evil and persecution

3. rare a crusade in support of a cause

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jihad Cultural  

1. In Islam, a holy war; a war ordained by God. The Koran teaches that soldiers who die in jihad go to heaven immediately.

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Usage

The term jihad, literally meaning struggle, has always had multiple meanings within Muslim discourse. It has been interpreted to mean an individual spiritual struggle toward righteousness, and to mean a collective struggle for self-defense. This second meaning was picked up by both the international media and Islamic fundamentalists, and the word is now often understood to mean a holy war against nonbelievers, despite the lack of support for this meaning in the religious scholarship of mainstream Islam.

Discover More

Modern-day terrorists often claim that they are carrying out acts of destruction, such as the attacks on the World Trade Center towers, as part of a jihad.

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• jihads
  plural

Etymology

Origin of jihad

First recorded in 1865–70; from Arabic jihād “struggle, strife”

Explanation

Jihad is an Islamic religious term that most often means a kind of inner struggle for a spiritual goal. Many Muslims view jihad as an important duty of their religious life. The word jihad literally means "struggle" in Arabic. It's an important concept in Islam, one that appears dozens of times in the Quran, usually in the sense of a believer's internal struggle to be a good Muslim and fulfill essential religious duties. In Western popular culture and news, and among some groups of Muslims, jihad is more often used to mean "holy war," or a violent struggle against the enemies of Islam.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

jihad jihads

In the 1980s, Pakistan welcomed the Palestinian theorist of jihad Abdullah Azzam.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 22, 2026

In a message congratulating Mojtaba on his appointment Sunday, Hassan Khomeini—the grandson of the Islamic Republic’s founding ayatollah—offered “condolences on the martyrdom of your beloved father, who was a model of jihad and martyrdom.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 9, 2026

The danger is that Paul might be swayed to believe it, too, even as the hallucinogenic spice peppers him with visions of a jihad waged in his name.

From New York Times ● Feb. 21, 2024

He said police would act "decisively and quickly" and "intervene immediately" if there were chants of "jihad", though he also said context was important.

From BBC ● Nov. 24, 2023

She’d been two years old when Ahmad and Noor had left Kabul for Panjshir up north, to join Commander Ahmad Shah Massoud’s forces and fight the jihad.

From "A Thousand Splendid Suns" by Khaled Hosseini

Of these, almost 6,000 were from Europe, compared with around 700 between 1990 and 2010 for jihads like Afghanistan, Bosnia, Chechnya, and Iraq combined.

From Slate ● May 24, 2019

Play wrights Sanctuary directed Dr Larry Myers of St John s University goes directly to breaking news troubespots nd engages in dramatic arts jihads!

From New York Times ● Dec. 29, 2017

Federal agents complain that the Justice Department is unwilling to spend the money needed to endure a drawn-out war with Scientology or to fend off the cult's notorious jihads against individual agents.

From Time Magazine Archive

Related Words

• demonstration
• expedition
• movement