ayatollah
/aɪ.əˈtoʊl.ə/
ayatollah noun: a religious leader in Twelverism.
Noun
ayatollah (plural ayatollahs)
- A religious leader in Twelverism.
- "It could also pave the way for the Iranian people to seize this unique opportunity and shape their own future," Falk clarified. “I doubt the Iranian people want to replace one ayatollah with another ayatollah.”2026 March 5, Zvika Klein, quoting Ophir Falk, “Netanyahu adviser to 'Post': Best way to remove ayatollah threat is to remove ayatollahs”, in The Jerusalem Post, archived from the original on 10 Mar...
- An authority on any subject.
- 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.1983 February 5, Shiva, “SM/Feminism/Antisemitism”, in Gay Community News, volume 10, number 28, page 4
ayatollah meaning in Hindi, Urdu, Bengali and Arabic
ayatollah in Hindi
- a religious leader
- आयतुल्लाह āytullāh
ayatollah in Urdu
- a religious leader
- آیَتُ ٱللہ āyatu llāh
ayatollah in Bengali
- a religious leader
- আয়াতুল্লাহ aẏatullah
ayatollah in Arabic
- a religious leader
- آيَةُ اللّٰه ʔāyatu llāh
More languagesFewer languages
- ayatollah in Malay
- ayatollah
- ayatollah in Indonesian
- ayatullah
- ayatollah in Thai
- อายะตุลลอหฺ aa-yá-dtun-lɔɔ
Forms of ayatollah
| plural | ayatollahs |
|---|---|
| alternative form | ayatolla |
Origin of ayatollah
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”)).
Questions about ayatollah
- What does ayatollah mean?
- Ayatollah means a religious leader in Twelverism.
- What is ayatollah in Hindi?
- Ayatollah in Hindi is आयतुल्लाह (āytullāh). See Ayatollah meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is ayatollah?
- Ayatollah is a noun.
- How do you pronounce ayatollah?
- Ayatollah is pronounced /aɪ.əˈtoʊl.ə/ (US).
- What is the plural of ayatollah?
- The plural of ayatollah is ayatollahs.
Words near ayatollah in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: ayatollah (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-ayatollah.wav, ayatollah (1).wav.
Cite this entry: “ayatollah.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/ayatollah. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.