martyr

[ mahr-ter ]

noun

1. a person who willingly suffers death rather than renounce their religion.
2. 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.

3. a person who undergoes severe or constant suffering:

   The patient was a martyr to severe headaches.

4. a person who seeks sympathy or attention by feigning or exaggerating pain, deprivation, etc.

verb (used with object)

1. to persecute for supporting a belief or cause, especially by putting to death.
2. to torment or torture.

martyr

/ ˈmɑːtə /

noun

1. a person who suffers death rather than renounce his religious beliefs
2. a person who suffers greatly or dies for a cause, belief, etc
3. a person who suffers from poor health, misfortune, etc

   he's a martyr to rheumatism

4. facetious.
   a person who feigns suffering to gain sympathy, help, etc

verb

1. to kill as a martyr
2. to make a martyr of

Derived Forms

• ˌmartyriˈzation, noun

Other Words From

• martyr·ish adjective
• martyr·ly adverb adjective
• un·martyred adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of martyr¹

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

Word History and Origins

Origin of martyr¹

Old English martir, from Church Latin martyr, from Late Greek martur-, martus witness

Example Sentences

In death, Babbitt has become a martyr to many on the far right.

From Washington Post

Since the fatal shooting, Lemp has become a martyr among anti-government extremists around the country.

From Washington Post

Those were individuals who were just trying to live, not trying to be martyrs or tokens for political platforms or politicians.

From MIT Technology Review

The gains of the civil rights era, earned through mass protest and the blood of martyrs, again prompted a conservative backlash.

From Washington Post

Another thing I think is really important is that right now we expect people to be sort of martyrs if they enter into government service and then they turn around and become lobbyists to make a lot of money.

From Freakonomics

Conservative Muslim women in Turkey hailed Esme as a martyr and a symbol of female strength and resistance.

From The Daily Beast

Protestors chanted “with our blood and our souls, we will avenge you, oh martyr.”

From The Daily Beast

He informed her that Hamzat had “become a shahid,” a martyr, and he was dead.

From The Daily Beast

“Haters gonna hate” makes the person who says it into an automatic martyr, persecuted, misunderstood, maligned.

From The Daily Beast

With that, writes historian Edward Larson, “The fundamentalist movement acquired a martyr.”

From The Daily Beast

Joan Boughton, a widow, was burned for heresy; said to be the first female martyr of England.

From Project Gutenberg

It would not take two minutes to convert him from the inquisitor to the martyr at the stake.

From Project Gutenberg

Mrs. Stone's children were notoriously healthy, but she was of the stuff of which the modern martyr is made.

From Project Gutenberg

To his bourgeois mind, for all his imitation of the Chicago martyr, my words must have sounded knavish.

From Project Gutenberg

The martyr thanked him for his kindness, and promised to pray for him when she came into God's presence.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• victim