martyr
Americannoun
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a person who willingly suffers death rather than renounce their religion.
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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.
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a person who undergoes severe or constant suffering.
The patient was a martyr to severe headaches.
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a person who seeks sympathy or attention by feigning or exaggerating pain, deprivation, etc.
verb (used with object)
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to persecute for supporting a belief or cause, especially by putting to death.
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to torment or torture.
noun
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a person who suffers death rather than renounce his religious beliefs
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a person who suffers greatly or dies for a cause, belief, etc
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a person who suffers from poor health, misfortune, etc
he's a martyr to rheumatism
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facetious a person who feigns suffering to gain sympathy, help, etc
verb
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to kill as a martyr
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to make a martyr of
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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martyrsimple
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martyrssimple
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have martyredperfect
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has martyredperfect
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am martyringprogressive
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are martyringprogressive
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is martyringprogressive
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have been martyringperfect progressive
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has been martyringperfect progressive
Past
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martyredsimple
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had martyredperfect
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was martyringprogressive
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were martyringprogressive
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had been martyringperfect progressive
Future
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.
Vocabulary lists containing martyr
Hamilton
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Persepolis
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Ender's Game
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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:
“The medal of honor of being the son and husband of a martyr is also a sign of the depth of their faith and sacrifice,” he said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 9, 2026
Lim believes the judge will hand down a life sentence, though, so as to "avoid making Yoon a martyr".
From BBC ● Jan. 15, 2026
Matfess pointed to how the role of martyr cemented a view of Babbitt for Trump’s followers.
From Salon ● Jan. 6, 2026
Archaeologists believe the site began as the burial place of Christian martyr St. Neophytos, said to have been killed by Roman soldiers on the shore of the lake in A.D.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 28, 2025
“Meanwhile he’s sitting in jail, talking about fighting for his principles. He wants to be a martyr, Noah, that’s fine—but not at the expense of this family. I won’t stand for it!”
From "Flush" by Carl Hiaasen
But even people who aren’t being silenced, such as all the folks crying “cancel culture” after being called names on social media, steal the valor of bona fide free speech martyrs.
From Salon ● Apr. 29, 2026
Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said civilians were targeted - the casualties were "martyrs and wounded".
From BBC ● Apr. 9, 2026
They include drives to recruit millions of Iranians including children—a fixture of the tributes to martyrs via street signs and posters that are still a part of Iran’s daily life.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 3, 2026
“Everything should be named for the martyrs of the Farm Workers Movement. Every street should be named after them,” Huerta said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 21, 2026
It had happened to Medgar Evers the past summer, and the list of Civil Rights martyrs was growing.
From "While the World Watched: A Birmingham Bombing Survivor Comes of Age during the Civil Rights Movement" by Carolyn Maull McKinstry
The martyred Monica has literally been transfigured into a saint.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 22, 2026
Mohammad Mokhber, a former Iranian vice president, called the new supreme leader “the complete mirror of our martyred leader, Imam Khamenei.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 9, 2026
"This day we are all very heavy-hearted. We are mourning our beloved leader who was martyred," Syed Towfeeq, 40, told AFP.
From Barron's ● Mar. 1, 2026
Dr. King was an American patriot who was martyred for trying to bend the arc of the moral universe to justice.
From Salon ● Dec. 13, 2025
They are the martyred heroines of a holy crusade for freedom and human dignity.
From "While the World Watched: A Birmingham Bombing Survivor Comes of Age during the Civil Rights Movement" by Carolyn Maull McKinstry
“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
“There has long been a traditional narrative of blaming, vilifying and martyring courageous women,” the letter states.
From Slate ● Jul. 16, 2018
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
That, for me, was a very uncomfortable time,” he said, explaining that he had wanted to spare Van Gundy the scrutiny in season, and wound up martyring him instead.
From New York Times ● Dec. 14, 2015
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
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.
