Ayatollah

//aɪ.əˈtoʊl.ə// noun, slang

noun, slang ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A religious leader in Twelver Shi'ism. Shia
  2. 2
    a high-ranking Shiite religious leader who is regarded as an authority on religious law and its interpretation and who has political power as well wordnet
  3. 3
    An authority on any subject. colloquial

    "P.S. This writer does NOT speak as the Ayatollah of SM. (There isn't one.) If you really want to know more, talk to sadomasochists, or at least do some reading if you're too scared to ask."

Synonyms

All synonyms
clergyman

Example

More examples

"Banisadr, who returned to Iran with the founder of the Islamic Republic Ayatollah Khomeini after the downfall of Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi in 1979, was elected with the support of his mentor Khomeini in 1980."

Etymology

Borrowed from Iranian Persian آیَتُاللّٰه (âyato-l-lâh), from Classical Persian آیَةُاللّٰه (āyatu-l-lāh), from Arabic آيَةُ ٱللَّٰهِ (ʔāyatu llāhi, “sign of God”, from آيَة (ʔāya, “sign”) + اللّٰه (allāh, “God”)).

Related phrases

shi ism

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.