as in to attack
to kill (someone) for refusing to give up a belief or cause
—usually used as (be) martyred
He was martyred for his religious beliefs.
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Recent Examples of martyr
Huda Fakhreddine
august 28, Literary Hub, 28 Aug. 2025
His grandfather was martyred in the 1971 war, the former spy reveals.
—Sweta Kaushal, Forbes.com, 19 May 2025
Alice Gregory, New Yorker, 16 Nov. 2025
What to Know Maloyan was an Armenian bishop and martyr who was killed during the Ottoman genocide in 1915.
—Jenni Fink, MSNBC Newsweek, 31 Oct. 2025
See All Example Sentences for martyr
Verb
But closer to me, and with greater incident, these phrases are inflected by the voice of Hiba Abu Nada, the Gazan poet who was martyred in an Israeli airstrike on October 20, 2023.
—Noun
Aside from a few vivid details—her vegetarian diet, the silver necklace strung permanently around her throat—Erik’s portrait of Hilma resembles that of a martyr.
—Recent Examples of Synonyms for martyr
Verb
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Kyiv — Russia attacked Ukraine with a hypersonic Oreshnik missile overnight Thursday, a rare use of one of its most advanced weapons during the latest onslaught targeting the country amid freezing temperatures.—
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Russia attacked Ukraine overnight with 242 drones and 36 missiles, the Ukrainian Air Force said Friday morning.—
Noun
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But what's really cool is how the movie brings those story lines together in a narrative filled with intriguing twists, gnarly kills, heroic sacrifices and a slew of nifty new Predator designs.—
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Swapping the pie crust for these biscuits is a small sacrifice—if it could even be called that.—
Verb
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Still, whatever validity there is to his pain, Peter becomes a high priest of hallucination and Coon’s tortured Agnes his disciple.—
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In Chechnya, a region in southern Russia with a predominantly Muslim population, authorities launched an open hunt for gay men—police rounded them up and tortured many of them, with some being killed.—
Noun
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Dominic Tierney is an expert on losers—in the best possible way.—
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So ahead of Rosenior’s first game in charge of Chelsea, against Charlton in the FA Cup tomorrow evening, The Athletic takes a look at the winners — and absence of losers — in the Chelsea squad.—
Verb
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But Everton’s new recruitment structure would also do well to note that Brentford agreed the deal for their hat-trick hero Igor Thiago, who tormented the Toffees on Sunday, at the end of the 2024 winter transfer window.—
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Dominique Marceau, a young rebel accused of murder, was a complex and tormented character, which Bardot managed to imbue with depth and authenticity.—
Verb
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First, Monty Miller (a suave, anguished Jon Hamm), Tommy’s lifelong friend and billionaire founder of M-Tex, dies suddenly, but not before naming the fixer as the new company president.—
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There is a mood to these stories, sardonic and anguished in turn, that gets under your skin.—
Verb
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Open Doors is a global Christian charity supporting Christians persecuted for their faith.—
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Most commonly, people felt they were being persecuted via their electronics – that their Wi-Fi networks, computers or cellphones had been hacked or implanted with tracking devices.—
Verb
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And then stop the organizational dysfunction, which has plagued the team for years.—
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The program, plagued from the outset by cost overruns and delays, was paused by the ICC at the end of 2023 to conduct an investigation into the best path forward after the surcharge expired.—
Cite this Entry
“Martyr.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/martyr. Accessed 13 Jan. 2026.
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