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Definition of "hegira" [he•gi•ra]

  • A flight to escape danger. (noun)
  • The flight of Muhammad from Mecca to Medina in 622 A.D., marking the beginning of the Muslim era. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Use "hegira" in a sentence
  • "While keeping the above definitions in mind---I want to provide some more background--As my previous posts indicated--the muslims of Mecca had been persecuted in Mecca and they eventually fled to Medina--the event is called the hegira and the start Year one of the muslim calender."
  • "Kahlil started in again on his epic, the hegira that had brought him from Lebanon to Egypt and Italy and Spain via the ports and the jails."
  • "Yet, palpitating and real, shimmering in the sun-flashed dust of ten thousand hoofs, she saw pass, from East to West, across a continent, the great hegira of the land-hungry"