Jihad

Pronunciation

• enPR: jÄ­-häd', IPA: /dʒɪˈhɑːd/
• enPR: jÉ™-häd', IPA: /dʒəˈhɑːd/

Alternative forms

• jehad

Origin

From Arabic جهاد (jihād, "struggle; effort").

Full definition of jihad

Noun

1. (Islam) A holy war undertaken by Muslims.
• 1938, "Holy War", Time, 22 Aug 1938:Young Iraqis of both sects obeyed the imams' ruling last week by rushing to conscription offices in hot, dirty, dusty Bagdad to offer themselves or their money for the jihad.
• 1977, Alistair Horne, A Savage War of Peace, New York Review Books 2006, p. 26:Small groups of killers, the scent of blood in their nostrils, now fanned out by taxi, bicycle or even on horseback into the surrounding countryside, spreading the word that a general jihad, or ‘holy war’, had broken out.
• 2013, Mona Mahmood & Ian Black, The Guardian, 8 May 2013:The Jabhat al-Nusra media, with songs about jihad and martyrdom, is extremely influential.
2. An aggressive campaign for an idea.
3. (theology) a personal spiritual struggle for self-improvement and against evil

Anagrams

• hadji