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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 went to the pilgrim Mass and saw the famous thurible swing through the cathedral.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 25, 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

The city's many pilgrim tour companies sit idle.

From Barron's ● May 4, 2026

I am a pilgrim to Winifred’s well, For Saint Winifred’s well will heal me.

From "Good Masters! Sweet Ladies!: Voices from a Medieval Village" by Laura Amy Schlitz

Adler said Pilgrim is now working with defense and national security partners that he declined to name with a long-term goal of becoming a major biodefense contractor, akin to Lockheed Martin or Anduril.

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

Mr Foster, a senior pastor at the Pilgrim Church in Nottingham, was appointed in June to oversee the government's response to the Windrush scandal and represent its victims.

From BBC ● Nov. 25, 2025

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

So Billy Pilgrim had to sleep standing up, or not sleep at all.

From "Slaughterhouse-Five" by Kurt Vonnegut

The local Catholic Church has asked residents to open their doors to pilgrims who make the journey for the pope's visit.

From Barron's ● Nov. 3, 2026

A search for survivors is under way after a helicopter carrying six people, including five pilgrims, crashed in the northern Indian state of Uttarakhand, officials say.

From BBC ● Oct. 30, 2026

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

From BBC ● Oct. 11, 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

I have many pen pals: tourists, Holy Land pilgrims, and students who join pen pal programs to see the world through other people’s words.

From "Tasting the Sky" by Ibtisam Barakat

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Related Words

• settler
• traveler

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