muslim
n. countablen. a person who follows the religion of Islam. You use this word to describe someone's faith or community.
n. a follower of Islam; a person who adheres to the teachings of the Quran and the Prophet Muhammad.
My neighbor is a devout Muslim.
The local mosque hosts a weekly gathering for the Muslim community.
As a Muslim scholar, he dedicated his life to studying the historical roots of Islamic philosophy.
Borrowed around 1615 from Arabic مُسْلِم (muslim, “one who submits”), the active participle of أَسْلَمَ (ʔaslama, “he submitted”), verb form IV from the triliteral root س ل م (s l m), "to be whole, intact". The verbal noun إسْلام (ʔislām) means literally "submission". In a religious sense, الْإِسْلَام (al-ʔislām) translates to "faith, piety", and مُسْلِم (muslim) to "one who has (religious) faith or piety".
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Last updated May 5, 2026