messiah

noun

mes·​si·​ah mə-ˈsī-ə How to pronounce messiah (audio)
1
capitalized
a
: the expected king and deliverer of the Jews
2
: a professed or accepted leader of some hope or cause
security, which the political messiahs promiseVardis Fisher
messiahship noun

Examples of messiah in a Sentence

They thought the new principal was the messiah the school had been hoping for.
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.
Historically, attempts to arrest messiahs have met with mixed results, so to stay on the safe side, the Interior Ministry not only rolled up Fitzek and three conspirators but also shut down his whole operation, known as the Kingdom of Germany. Graeme Wood, The Atlantic, 19 May 2025 While away from the spotlight, Moretti has founded a community of craftspeople who take pride in making things by hand, cracking oysters in search of pearls and immersing themselves in performance arts, while worshipping their messiah in human form. Tomris Laffly, Variety, 28 Jan. 2025 His 1984 Dune adapts Frank Herbert’s book about a messiah from another world whose family is decimated and who is thought lost and dead but is reborn as the leader of a guerilla insurgency on a desert planet after ingesting spice that activates mind-expanding, reality-flouting superpowers. Matt Zoller Seitz, Vulture, 16 Jan. 2025 In Jerusalem, for example, who even bothers to look up when a prophet in the throes boards the light rail at the Mount Herzl military cemetery, or when a messiah in white robes astride a white donkey trots down Jaffa Road past the municipal center blowing his horn? Tova Reich, Harper's Magazine, 2 Jan. 2024 See All Example Sentences for messiah

Word History

Etymology

Hebrew māshīaḥ & Aramaic mĕshīḥā, literally, anointed

First Known Use

before the 12th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1a

Time Traveler
The first known use of messiah was before the 12th century

Browse Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Messiah.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/messiah. Accessed 4 Jun. 2025.

Kids Definition

messiah

noun
mes·​si·​ah mə-ˈsī-ə How to pronounce messiah (audio)
1
capitalized
a
: the expected king and deliverer of the Jews
b
: Jesus Christ regarded as the savior of the world by Christians
2
: a leader of some hope or cause : deliverer

More from Merriam-Webster on messiah

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