jihad

noun

ji·​had ji-ˈhäd How to pronounce jihad (audio)
 chiefly British  -ˈhad
variants or less commonly jehad
1
: a holy war waged on behalf of Islam as a religious duty
also : a personal struggle in devotion to Islam especially involving spiritual discipline
2
: a crusade for a principle or belief

Examples of jihad in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Early one October morning in 2018, Sharma got a call from an informant reporting a love jihad emergency. Mohammad Ali, WIRED, 14 Apr. 2020 The decision to disband the organization, said Jones, was likely driven by several factors, including the influence of intellectuals within JI who were less interested in violent jihad, and a cost-benefit analysis on the best way to protect the group’s biggest assets – its schools. Reuters, CNN, 5 July 2024 Thinking of modern jihad as simply a cultural extension of Islam is a common, and unfortunate, mistake. Foreign Affairs, 10 June 2024 Their scholars justified killing captives and civilians as necessary and legitimate in the jihad against foreign occupation. Matthieu Aikins Victor J. Blue Peter Ganim Krish Seenivasan Steven Szczesniak, New York Times, 22 May 2024 See all Example Sentences for jihad 

Word History

Etymology

Arabic jihād

First Known Use

1837, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Time Traveler
The first known use of jihad was in 1837

Dictionary Entries Near jihad

Cite this Entry

“Jihad.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/jihad. Accessed 21 Nov. 2024.

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