martyr

American  

[mahr-ter] / ˈmɑr tər /

noun

• martyrs
  plural

1. a person who willingly suffers death rather than renounce their religion.

2. a person who is put to death or endures great suffering on behalf of any belief, principle, or cause.

   Her death has made her a martyr to the cause of social justice.

3. a person who undergoes severe or constant suffering.

   The patient was a martyr to severe headaches.

4. a person who seeks sympathy or attention by feigning or exaggerating pain, deprivation, etc.

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verb (used with object)

• martyrs,
  present (3rd person singular)
• martyred,
  past participle,  past
• martyring
  present participle

1. to persecute for supporting a belief or cause, especially by putting to death.

2. to torment or torture.

martyr British  

/ ˈmɑːtə /

noun

1. a person who suffers death rather than renounce his religious beliefs

2. a person who suffers greatly or dies for a cause, belief, etc

3. a person who suffers from poor health, misfortune, etc

   he's a martyr to rheumatism

4. facetious a person who feigns suffering to gain sympathy, help, etc

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verb

1. to kill as a martyr

2. to make a martyr of

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• martyrization
  noun
• martyrish
  adjective
• unmartyred
  adjective
• martyrly
  adverb

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• martyrs
  plural

Participles

• martyring
  present
• martyred
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• martyr
  simple
• martyrs
  simple
• have martyred
  perfect
• has martyred
  perfect
• am martyring
  progressive
• are martyring
  progressive
• is martyring
  progressive
• have been martyring
  perfect progressive
• has been martyring
  perfect progressive

Past

• martyred
  simple
• had martyred
  perfect
• was martyring
  progressive
• were martyring
  progressive
• had been martyring
  perfect progressive

Future

• will martyr
  simple
• will have martyred
  perfect
• will be martyring
  progressive
• will have been martyring
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of martyr

First recorded before 900; Middle English noun martir, marter, Old English martyr from Old French and Late Latin, from Late Greek mártyr, dialect variant of Greek mártys, mártyros “witness”; verb derivative of noun

Explanation

Someone who suffers, or is even killed, for his or her political or religious beliefs is called a martyr. Martin Luther King Jr. is often called a martyr in connection with the American civil rights movement. A martyr is also someone who chooses to be put to death rather than renounce his or her religious beliefs, as the story of Saint Stephen tells. In the figurative sense, if you are a martyr to headaches, you suffer from them. Sometimes, martyr is used negatively to refer to someone who chooses to suffer when there is no need to do so.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

martyr martyrs martyred martyring

When CBS’ “Face the Nation” host Margaret Brennan asked whether broadcasting Hasan’s execution could encourage radicalization by turning him into a martyr, Mullin offered a blunt response: “No one has to watch it.”

From Salon ● Oct. 11, 2026

As the nation abandoned Reconstruction, a generation of politicians and historians recast Johnson as a martyr to congressional tyranny.

From Slate ● Sep. 16, 2026

Her Elizabeth is neither martyr nor saint, just a woman who wants to live as she’s always lived for as long as she can.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 13, 2026

Actor and Tibetan activist Richard Gere headlined an hourslong Times Square rally on Saturday honoring Lobga where many wore T-shirts depicting him as a martyr surrounded by flames.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 6, 2026

I had been selfish and hyper-sensitive, a martyr to my own inferiority complex.

From "Rebecca" by Daphne du Maurier

"We came to mourn our martyrs, children, women and the elderly," he said.

From Barron's ● Aug. 4, 2026

They are just a few of the most famous martyrs of the movement that gave birth to the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

From Slate ● Jul. 27, 2026

Tertullian, an early Christian writer, taught that the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 18, 2026

“We call them our martyrs and our heroes.”

From Los Angeles Times ● May 22, 2026

Once again I was listening with rapt terror to the lives of the saints and the martyrs, although that wasn’t really what attracted me this time.

From "Farewell to Manzanar" by Jeanne Houston

Did Jutta’s death undermine her causes or, in the way of martyred saints, give them immortality?

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 6, 2026

The martyred Monica has literally been transfigured into a saint.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 22, 2026

"Oh, my martyred child," he wailed, "oh my darling."

From BBC ● Apr. 16, 2026

"The wife of the martyred supreme leader is alive, and the initial reports of her martyrdom were incorrect," it said.

From Barron's ● Mar. 13, 2026

“Some will say you were saints, martyred for your beliefs. But we will know the truth.”

From "The Inquisitor's Tale" by Adam Gidwitz

“I think he wanted something on his résumé, some way of martyring himself, so he could say ‘They’re out to get me.’”

From Seattle Times ● Aug. 5, 2023

January was before the makeshift hospitals, before the martyring of a whistle-blower doctor, before nearly 800 million people were placed under lockdown, before the virus started spreading in earnest beyond Chinese borders.

From Slate ● Mar. 28, 2020

Jamie is the master of his fate, Jamie puts himself in harms way, Jamie is martyring himself, no one asked him to do all the things he does for others.

From New York Times ● Nov. 5, 2017

David Cronenberg’s “The Dead Zone” makes a curse out of a gift, martyring a man who can see the future at the price of his life.

From Washington Post ● Aug. 31, 2017

She sits down next to me, crunching and martyring her way through the bowl of dry cereal, eyeing my plate the whole time.

From "I'll Give You the Sun" by Jandy Nelson

Related Words

• scapegoat