martyr
Americannoun
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martyrs
plural
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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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martyrs,
present (3rd person singular)
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martyred,
past participle, past
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martyring
present participle
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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
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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:
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
Hasan, who is paralyzed, had told military officials he hoped to become a martyr.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 9, 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
In a normal rom-com, this is where Jack would exit stage left as the martyr who nudged Wendy toward her true soulmate.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 2, 2026
"Indeed. What is martyr in Latin? Or in Greek, for that matter?"
From "The Inquisitor's Tale" by Adam Gidwitz
Individual members prosecuted were seen by themselves and the faithful as martyrs for the cause.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 25, 2026
"The verdict reflects the magnitude of the sacrifices we made, the sacrifices of the martyrs, the suffering and pain of the victims, the missing, and the detainees," she told the BBC.
From BBC ● Aug. 11, 2026
Last year, he welcomed Toutou to the presidential palace as part of a ceremony honouring families of the "martyrs".
From Barron's ● Aug. 7, 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
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
In doing so, he managed to breach the walls of the city electronically and turn his invisible eye into the world’s gaze on the martyred city.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 27, 2026
"Oh, my martyred child," he wailed, "oh my darling."
From BBC ● Apr. 16, 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
Zahra Mumtaz, a 52-year-old housewife from nearby Rawalpindi, said: "Our leader has been martyred, and we are not even allowed to protest."
From Barron's ● Mar. 1, 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
Now they have jumped on the grievance train, martyring themselves for the cause:
From Salon ● Oct. 20, 2021
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
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
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
