martyr

From Middle English martir, from Old English martir, itself a borrowing from Ecclesiastical Latin martyr, from Ancient Greek μάρτυρ (mártur), later form of μάρτυς (mártus, “witness”).

• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /ˈmɐːtə(ɹ)/, [ˈmɐːtə(ɹ)], [ˈmɐːɾə(ɹ)]
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈmɑːtə(ɹ)/[1]
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈmɑɹ.tɚ/, [ˈmɑɹ.ɾɚ][1]
• Rhymes: -ɑː(ɹ)tə(ɹ)

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Hyphenation: mar‧tyr

martyr (plural martyrs)

1. One who willingly accepts being put to death for adhering openly to one's religious beliefs; notably, saints canonized after martyrdom.

   Saint Stephen was the first Christian martyr.

2. (by extension) One who sacrifices his or her life, station, or something of great personal value, for the sake of principle or to sustain a cause.
3. (with a prepositional phrase of cause) One who suffers greatly and/or constantly, even involuntarily.

   Stan is a martyr to arthritis, Chris a martyr to Stan's endless moaning about it.

   • 1937, AJ Cronin, The Citadel:

     He'd been a martyr to asthma all his life.

• shaheed, shahid

• confessor

martyr (third-person singular simple present martyrs, present participle martyring, simple past and past participle martyred)

1. (transitive) To make someone into a martyr by putting him or her to death for adhering to, or acting in accordance with, some belief, especially religious; to sacrifice on account of faith or profession.
2. (transitive) To persecute.

   Some religious and other minorities were martyred until extinction.

3. (transitive) To torment; to torture.

   The lovely Amoret, whose gentle heart

   Thou martyrest with sorrow and with smart. — Spenser

• martyrize

• martyrer

Borrowed from Ecclesiastical Latin martyr, from Ancient Greek μάρτυρ (mártur), later form of μάρτυς (mártus, “witness”).

martyr c (singular definite martyren, plural indefinite martyrer)

1. martyr

• “martyr” in Den Danske Ordbog

From Old French martire, borrowed from Ecclesiastical Latin martyr, from Ancient Greek μάρτυρ (mártur), later form of μάρτυς (mártus, “witness”).

• IPA^(key): /maʁ.tiʁ/

• Audio

  (file)

martyr m (plural martyrs, feminine martyre)

1. martyr

• martyre

• “martyr” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

From Ancient Greek μάρτυρ (mártur), later form of μάρτυς (mártus, “witness”).

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈmar.tyr/, [ˈmar.tʏr]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈmar.tir/

martyr m or f (genitive martyris); third declension

1. (Ecclesiastical Latin) martyr, especially a Christian martyr

Third declension.

• martyrium

• → Danish: martyr
• → Dutch: martelaar
• → Estonian: märter
• → Finnish: marttyyri
• → German: Märtyrer
• → Hungarian: mártír
• Lombard: màrtul
• → Norwegian: martyr
• → Old French: martire
  • French: martyr
  • → Middle English: martir
    • Scots: mairtyr
    • English: martyr
      • → Maori: matira
  • Norman: martyr
• → Italian: martire
• Neapolitan: marture
• Old Italian: martore
• → Old Occitan:
  • Catalan: màrtir
  • Occitan: martir
• → Old Portuguese:
  • Galician: mártir
  • Portuguese: mártir
• Romanian: martor
• Sardinian: màrturu
• → Scottish Gaelic: martair
• → Spanish: mártir
  • → Tagalog: martir
• → Swedish: martyr

• martyr in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• martyr in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition, 1883–1887)

From Ecclesiastical Latin martyr, from Ancient Greek μάρτυρ (mártur), later form of μάρτυς (mártus, “witness”).

martyr m (plural martyrs)

1. (religion) martyr

Borrowed from Ecclesiastical Latin martyr, from Ancient Greek μάρτυρ (mártur), later form of μάρτυς (mártus, “witness”).

martyr m (definite singular martyren, indefinite plural martyrer, definite plural martyrene)

1. martyr

• martre
• martyrdød
• martyrium

• “martyr” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

Borrowed from Ecclesiastical Latin martyr, from Ancient Greek μάρτυρ (mártur), later form of μάρτυς (mártus, “witness”).

martyr m (definite singular martyren, indefinite plural martyrar, definite plural martyrane)

1. martyr

• martyrdød
• martyrium

• “martyr” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Borrowed from Ecclesiastical Latin martyr, from Ancient Greek μάρτυρ (mártur), later form of μάρτυς (mártus, “witness”).

• Rhymes: -yːr

martyr c

1. martyr

• martyrskap