What does "mahdi" mean?

A leader who, according to Sunni eschatology, will appear and restore peace and justice before the end of the world.

What is a synonym for "mahdi"?

Common synonyms include: bellwether, choirmaster, conductor, duce, forerunner, fugleman.

name

name ·2 syllables ·Rare ·Advanced level

Proper Noun

1
A leader who, according to Sunni eschatology, will appear and restore peace and justice before the end of the world. Sunni
"Ahmadis consider Mirza Ghulam Ahmed to be the Mahdi."
2
Muhammad b. Hasan al-Mahdi, the last of the Twelve Imams, born in 868 AD but believed alive and present in this world in a state of occultation; Similarly to Sunni belief, he will reappear before the end of time.

"The Mahdi Army is a private militia in Iraq."

From Arabic مَهْدِيّ (mahdiyy, “guided one”).

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