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 Pure propaganda for jihad, for Jew hatred and for Western sympathy. Ruby Mellen, Washington Post, 19 Nov. 2023 The streets of London, Paris and Berlin are blocked by marchers calling for jihad. Dominic Green, WSJ, 31 Oct. 2023 Eventually, Brother Eric tried to entice the boys into talking about jihad. Clare Malone, The New Yorker, 15 Sep. 2023 Brother Eric was a white man who claimed to be a convert to Islam, and Minhaj said Brother Eric attempted to coax the men at the mosque to talk about jihad. Emily St. Martin, Los Angeles Times, 15 Sep. 2023 When five of their friends went to Pakistan this spring to return to jihad, both men brimmed with jealousy. Christina Goldbaum Jim Huylebroek, New York Times, 14 Aug. 2023 In fact, Islam itself, the jihad, was founded by a woman and the prophet’s an employee of a woman. Abc News, ABC News, 9 Mar. 2023 In 2015, an Iranian news agency released photographs of the overhauled F-14s, revealing that the self-sufficiency jihad was by this point quite advanced. Stephen Witt, Popular Mechanics, 2 Mar. 2023

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'jihad.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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 28 Mar. 2024.

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