Saint vs. Martyr — What's the Difference?

In religious belief, a saint is a person who is recognized as having an exceptional degree of holiness, likeness, or closeness to God. However, the use of the term "saint" depends on the context and denomination.

A martyr (Greek: μάρτυς, mártys, "witness"; stem μαρτυρ-, martyr-) is someone who suffers persecution and death for advocating, renouncing, or refusing to renounce or advocate, a religious belief or cause as demanded by an external party. In the martyrdom narrative of the remembering community, this refusal to comply with the presented demands results in the punishment or execution of an actor by an alleged oppressor.

Abbr. St. or S. A person officially recognized, especially by canonization, as being entitled to public veneration and capable of interceding for people on earth.

A person who is killed because of their religious or other beliefs

A person who has died and gone to heaven.

Kill (someone) because of their beliefs

Saint A member of any of various Christian groups, especially a Latter-Day Saint.

One who chooses to suffer death rather than renounce religious principles.

A person who is venerated for holiness in a non-Christian religious tradition.

One who makes great sacrifices or suffers much in order to further a belief, cause, or principle.

An extremely virtuous person.

One who endures great suffering

To name, recognize, or venerate as a saint.

One who makes a great show of suffering in order to arouse sympathy.

To regard or venerate as extremely virtuous.

To make a martyr of, especially to put to death for devotion to religious beliefs.

A person whom a church or another religious group has officially recognised as especially holy or godly; one eminent for piety and virtue.

To inflict great pain on; torment.

A person with positive qualities; one who does good.

One who willingly accepts being put to death for adhering openly to one's religious beliefs; notably, saints canonized after martyrdom.

One of the blessed in heaven.

(by extension) One who sacrifices their life, station, or something of great personal value, for the sake of principle or to sustain a cause.

(archaic) A holy object.

One who suffers greatly and/or constantly, even involuntarily.

(transitive) To canonize, to formally recognize someone as a saint.

(transitive) To make someone into a martyr by putting them to death for adhering to, or acting in accordance with, some belief, especially religious; to sacrifice on account of faith or profession.

A person sanctified; a holy or godly person; one eminent for piety and virtue; any true Christian, as being redeemed and consecrated to God.

(transitive) To persecute.

One of the blessed in heaven.

(transitive) To torment; to torture.

One canonized by the church.

One who, by his death, bears witness to the truth of the gospel; one who is put to death for his religion; as, Stephen was the first Christian martyr.

To make a saint of; to enroll among the saints by an offical act, as of the pope; to canonize; to give the title or reputation of a saint to (some one).

Hence, one who sacrifices his life, his station, or what is of great value to him, for the sake of principle, or to sustain a cause.

To act or live as a saint.

To put to death for adhering to some belief, esp. Christianity; to sacrifice on account of faith or profession.

A person who has died and has been declared a saint by canonization

To persecute; to torment; to torture.

Person of exceptional holiness

One who suffers for the sake of principle

Model of excellence or perfection of a kind; one having no equal

One who voluntarily suffers death as the penalty for refusing to renounce their religion

Hold sacred

Kill as a martyr;

In the Catholic church; declare (a dead person) to be a saint;

Torture and torment like a martyr