ayatollah

noun aya·tol·lah \ ˌī-ə-ˈtō-lə , -ˈtä- , -ˈtə- , ˈī-ə-ˌ \

Definition of ayatollah

:a religious leader among Shiite Muslims —used as a title of respect especially for one who is not an imam

Recent Examples of ayatollah from the Web

New Jersey’s Corey Booker, Missouri’s Claire McCaskill, and other Democrats remained uncommitted, threatening Obama’s $150 billion bailout of the atomic ayatollahs.

— deroy murdock, National Review, "Senate Majority Leader McConnell Should . . . Lead the Senate Majority," 10 July 2017
Helping the Baghdad government is equivalent, sad to say, to helping the ayatollahs in Iran.

— WSJ, "The GOP Stand in Georgia," 26 June 2017
But if the Saudi regime, through personal ambition or family ambition, ends up destabilizing, everybody in the gulf on the Arab side could be trouble, and the opportunity for both Sunni extremists and the ayatollahs in Tehran could be formidable.

— WSJ, "The GOP Stand in Georgia," 26 June 2017
The ayatollah's wife is buried in the complex as well, along with several notable political figures.

— amanda erickson, Washington Post, "The Tehran terrorist attacks targeted one of Iran’s most sacred spaces," 7 June 2017
But Rafsanjani, himself an ayatollah, clashed with Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader, over the extent to which Iran should modify its bellicose stance toward outsiders.

— alan cowell, Orange County Register, "Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, ex-president of Iran, dies at 82," 8 Jan. 2017
TEHRAN — Iran’s supreme leader backed the country’s missile program on Wednesday, criticizing a prominent ayatollah who had suggested that in the future, negotiations were far more important.

— thomas erdbrink, New York Times, "Iran’s Missile Tests and the Nuclear Deal MARCH 10, 2016," 30 Mar. 2016

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'ayatollah.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.