What does "zoroaster" mean?

An ancient Iranian prophet after whom the indigenous Iranian ethnic religion, Zoroastrianism, is named, also venerated in Mithraism.

What is a synonym for "zoroaster"?

Common synonyms include: buddha, zarathustra, zartosht.

Pronounced //ˌzɒɹoʊˈæstəɹ//.

//ˌzɒɹoʊˈæstəɹ// name

name ·Rare ·Advanced level

Proper Noun

1
An ancient Iranian prophet after whom the indigenous Iranian ethnic religion, Zoroastrianism, is named, also venerated in Mithraism.
2
Pseudepigraphic name used by various Ancient Greek and Latin authors of late antiquity to lend weight to their opinions.

"They say that once upon a time, the righteous Zoroaster established in the world the religion which he had received."

Learned borrowing from Latin Zōroastrēs, from Ancient Greek Ζωροάστρης (Zōroástrēs), from Avestan 𐬰𐬀𐬭𐬀𐬚𐬎𐬱𐬙𐬭𐬀 (zaraθuštra). Doublet of Zarathustra.

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