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• pilgrim
  pilgrim

  noun

  a person who journeys, especially a long distance, to some sacred place as an act of religious devotion.
• Pilgrim
  Pilgrim

  noun

  See Canterbury Pilgrims

pilgrim

American  

[pil-grim, -gruhm] / ˈpɪl grɪm, -grəm /

noun

• pilgrims
  plural

1. a person who journeys, especially a long distance, to some sacred place as an act of religious devotion.

   pilgrims to the Holy Land.

2. a traveler or wanderer, especially in a foreign place.

3. an original settler in a region.

4. (initial capital letter) one of the band of Puritans who founded the colony of Plymouth, Mass., in 1620.

5. a newcomer to a region or place, especially to the western U.S.

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pilgrim ¹ British  

/ ˈpɪlɡrɪm /

noun

1. a person who undertakes a journey to a sacred place as an act of religious devotion

2. any wayfarer

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Pilgrim ² British  

/ ˈpɪlɡrɪm /

noun

1. See Canterbury Pilgrims

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• pilgrimatic
  adjective
• pilgrimatical
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• pilgrims
  plural

Etymology

Origin of pilgrim

First recorded in 1150–1200; Middle English pelegrim, pilegrim, cognate with Old Frisian pilegrīm, Middle Low German pelegrīm, Old High German piligrīm, Old Norse pīlagrīmr, all from Medieval Latin pelegrīnus, dissimilated variant of Latin peregrīnus peregrine

Explanation

You might be a Muslim on your way to Mecca, or a Hindu going to the Ganges, or a Christian traveling to Lourdes. When you make a reverent journey to a place you consider sacred, you're a pilgrim. You can also use the word less seriously and call yourself a pilgrim when you make the trip to Graceland for Elvis Week. Another kind of pilgrim (often spelled with a capital P) are the Puritans who fled religious persecution in Europe, came over on the Mayflower, and founded Plymouth Colony, in Massachusetts. The word comes from the Latin peregrinus, "foreign," or "a foreigner," and if you just travel to foreign countries, you’re a pilgrim, too.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

pilgrim Pilgrim pilgrims

“I’m just a weary pilgrim trying to find what feels like home,” she sings.

From Salon ● Aug. 28, 2026

Another pilgrim who was on the bus, 53-year-old Vijayabhuvaneshwari, said: "We had no choice."

From Barron's ● Aug. 28, 2026

Every person is a pilgrim on their own grief journey.

From Slate ● Apr. 23, 2026

Addressing a crowd of an estimated 150,000 people — including much of Lebanon’s political class — Leo described himself as “a pilgrim of hope to the Middle East.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 2, 2025

Instead I knelt on the floor, feeling like a pilgrim begging advice from an all-knowing oracle.

From "Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children" by Ransom Riggs

The investment in Pilgrim offers a window into how some of the leaders of major AI labs are thinking about the potential biological risks of AI that is smarter than humans.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 23, 2026

The startup, Pilgrim, has built a 50-pound tripod-mounted hardware device called Argus that is packed with sensors that combines air sampling and genomic sequencing to detect biological threats, like Ebola or anthrax.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 23, 2026

She lives at Pilgrim Place — a senior community with a focus on justice, peace and environment — where residents meet regularly to study, discuss and advocate for sustainability, biodiversity and environmental causes.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 19, 2026

Pilgrim Fatemeh Moradi, 52, has been to the Arbaeen at least five times before, but said that this year is for "our martyred leader, on his behalf and on the behalf of all the martyrs".

From Barron's ● Aug. 1, 2026

Last came Billy Pilgrim, empty-handed, bleakly ready for death.

From "Slaughterhouse-Five" by Kurt Vonnegut

In late June, footage of a young Muslim man kicking a dog following Hindu pilgrims circulated widely on social media, triggering religious arguments online.

From BBC ● Oct. 5, 2026

The combined toll is 1,384 dead and more than 5,500 missing, including around 800 foreigners, among them tourists and pilgrims.

From Barron's ● Sep. 6, 2026

Somewhere around Temple 31, Chikurin-ji, where pilgrims pray to a deity of mental clarity, it became clear: We should rewrite our whole map to add more of the Henro into our 1,250-mile trip.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 6, 2026

Our revised route blessed us with hundreds of encounters with pilgrims.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 6, 2026

They were discalced to a man like pilgrims of some common order for all their shoes were long since stolen.

From "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy

Related Words

• settler
• traveler