Black Lives Matter

noun

: a movement founded in 2013 to end white supremacy and support Black communities

Note: Black Lives Matter was founded by Black community organizers Patrisse Khan-Cullors, Alicia Garza, and Opal Tometi after George Zimmerman was acquitted of charges relating to his fatal shooting of Black teenager Trayvon Martin in 2012; the movement expanded as people reacted to police killings of unarmed Black people in years following. The name Black Lives Matter functions as a declaration that Black people's lives have as much value as white people's lives, and as a call to end systems and practices that challenge this fact.

—abbreviation BLM

Examples of Black Lives Matter in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Twenty-one years is a long time to run a restaurant nightly, through the Great Recession of 2008, through vandalism during the Black Lives Matter protests, through the COVID-19 epidemic, a cataclysmic event that caused tens of thousands of restaurants nationally to shut their doors for good. —Eric Adler, Kansas City Star, 23 Sep. 2025

But Right-Wing Extremists Are Responsible for More Political Violence Trump continued attacking Antifa in the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder in May 2020, and the subsequent Black Lives Matter protests that swept the nation. —Rebecca Schneid, Time, 23 Sep. 2025

An uncompromising stance against any mention of the Black Lives Matter movement in his music—even from featured artists. —Preezy Brown, VIBE.com, 22 Sep. 2025

Since the Black Lives Matter protests of 2020, Trump and several conservatives have used Antifa as a catch-all term to describe left-wing groups. —Siladitya Ray, Forbes.com, 18 Sep. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

2014, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for Black Lives Matter

• antimatter
• atter
• batter
• blatter
• catarrh
• chatter
• clatter
• fatter
• flatter
• hatter
• latter
• natter