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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

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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

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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

I had only ever seen him on Zoom, and although he was tall, which was nice, I tried not to judge his brown cracked-leather buckled pilgrim shoes paired with high-waist Wrangler jeans.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 7, 2026

"I can't believe I've finished the hajj rituals," Iraqi pilgrim Adnan Hamad, 58, told AFP, as his daughters in white robes, or abayas, looked on.

From Barron's ● May 27, 2026

Every person is a pilgrim on their own grief journey.

From Slate ● Apr. 23, 2026

Would I be rejected as a Mecca pilgrim?

From "The Autobiography of Malcolm X" by Alex Malcolm X;Hailey

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

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

"Brand Beckham opened the door for what was possible and these two have kicked the door off its hinges," said Rob Pilgrim, head of sport at Meta for Europe, Middle East and Africa.

From BBC ● Jun. 5, 2026

The state produces only about half as much electricity as it did in 2010 because of closures of coal plants and the Pilgrim nuclear plant in 2019.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 23, 2025

Nearly everybody, seemingly, had an atrocity story of something Billy Pilgrim had done to him in his sleep.

From "Slaughterhouse-Five" by Kurt Vonnegut

Pope Leo reassured pilgrims that the mass was "well-contained" and caught "at an early stage".

From BBC ● Oct. 11, 2026

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

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

But 583 foreigners remain unaccounted for, many of them pilgrims who had spent months preparing for the demanding trek around Mount Kailash.

From Barron's ● Sep. 3, 2026

I saw incapacitated pilgrims being carried by others.

From "The Autobiography of Malcolm X" by Alex Malcolm X;Hailey

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Related Words

• settler
• traveler

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