The term martyr (Greek μάρτυς "witness") initially signified a witness in the forensic sense, a person called to bear witness in legal proceedings. With this meaning it was used in the secular sphere as well as in both the Old Testament and the New Testament of the Bible. During the early Christian centuries the term acquired the extended meaning of a believer who witnesses to his or her religious belief and on account of this witness endures suffering and death. The death of a martyr or the value attributed to it is called martyrdom.
In the Christian context, martyr generally indicates a person who is killed for maintaining his or her religious belief, knowing that this will almost certainly result in imminent death (though without intentionally seeking death). An example is the persecution of early Christians in the Roman Empire. Christian martyrs sometimes decline to defend themselves at all, in what they see as an imitation of Jesus' willing sacrifice.
Islam is considered to have a much broader view of what constitutes a martyr, generally including any Muslim who is killed in relation to Islam, e.g. in battle. Generally, some seek to include suicide bombers as a "martyr" of Islam, however, this is widely disputed citation needed] in the Muslim community. However this much wider usage of "martyr" is also not uncommon among Arab Christians (i.e. anyone killed in relation to Christianity or a Christian community, e.g. Pierre Amine Gemayel), indicating that the English word "martyr" may not actually be a proper equivalent of its commonly ascribed Arabic translation.
Though often religious in nature, martyrdom can be applied to a secular context as well. The term is sometimes applied to those who use violence, such as those who die for a nation's glory during wartime. It may also apply to nonviolent individuals who are killed or hurt in the struggle for independence, civil rights etc.