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

That legitimacy, however, was deeply tied to the more pressing causes that occasioned bohemia’s politicization—especially, though not exclusively, in the US: the AIDS crisis and Black Lives Matter. —Diedrich Diederichsen, Artforum, 1 Dec. 2025

The Black Lives Matter movement gained momentum as hundreds marched through the streets to protest police brutality. —Lauren Mascarenhas, CNN Money, 27 Nov. 2025

In 2021, following George Floyd’s murder in spring 2020 and the Black Lives Matter protests that followed, at least some yearbooks at least attempted to include coverage of the protests—not all did so without backlash. —Literary Hub, 25 Nov. 2025

For context, a defense fund for Kyle Rittenhouse, who fatally shot Black Lives Matter protestors, raised $2 million dollars. —Lorena O'Neil, Rolling Stone, 24 Nov. 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