fatwa
Valid in Scrabble
- Scrabble points
- 11
- Words With Friends
- 11
- Letters
- 5
See all 6 pronunciations Show less
Definition of fatwa
5 senses · 2 parts of speech · etymology included
noun
-
A formal legal decree, opinion, or ruling issued by a mufti or other Islamic judicial authority.
“The website contains fatwas on points of Islamic law that arise in court cases.”
“In 2015, one person was killed in Copenhagen at a meeting meant to mark the 25th anniversary of an Iranian fatwa against British writer Salman Rushdie, which Vilks attended.”
See all 5 definitions Show less
noun
-
A formal legal decree, opinion, or ruling issued by a mufti or other Islamic judicial authority.
“The website contains fatwas on points of Islamic law that arise in court cases.”
“In 2015, one person was killed in Copenhagen at a meeting meant to mark the 25th anniversary of an Iranian fatwa against British writer Salman Rushdie, which Vilks attended.”
- (broadly, proscribed)A decree issued by a mufti or other Islamic judicial authority that a person should be put to death, usually as punishment for committing apostasy or blasphemy.
- (broadly)A formal decree or ruling, or statement, issued by an authority of a religion other than Islam.
- (figuratively, informal)An emphatic decree or opinion, especially one which condemns or criticizes.
verb
-
(rare, transitive)To issue a fatwa (noun sense 1) against (someone); specifically (loosely, erroneous), a fatwa imposing a ban or a death sentence.
“Unlike many writers and artists, Chahine had not been fatwaed by the militants, but he felt threatened nevertheless.”
“One wonders why these terrorists are not fatwaed.”
“'I'm just beginning one,' says famously-fatwaed author of new novel [subtitle]”
“Ask Salman Rushdie. He was fatwaed for linking facts and fiction in ways that the mullahs say they should not be linked.”
Definitions from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA.
Etymology
The noun is borrowed from Arabic فَتْوَى (fatwā, “formal legal opinion”), the verbal noun of أَفْتَى (ʔaftā, “to deliver a formal opinion”) (whence مُفْتٍ (muftin, “mufti”), the active participle of…
See full etymology Show less
The noun is borrowed from Arabic فَتْوَى (fatwā, “formal legal opinion”), the verbal noun of أَفْتَى (ʔaftā, “to deliver a formal opinion”) (whence مُفْتٍ (muftin, “mufti”), the active participle of the same verb: see mufti). The forms fetwa, fetwah are derived from Italian fetfà (obsolete), and directly from its etymon Ottoman Turkish فتوی (fetva) (modern Turkish fetva), from Arabic فَتْوَى (fatwā): see above. Modern uses of noun sense 1.2 (“decree that a person should be put to death”) and the corresponding verb sense are probably influenced by the issuance of a fatwa on 14 February 1989 by the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini (1900 or 1902 – 1989), the Supreme Leader of Iran, calling for the British-American author Salman Rushdie (born 1947) and his publishers to be put to death for alleged blasphemy in his novel The Satanic Verses (1988). The plural form fatawa is borrowed from Arabic فَتَاوَى (fatāwā). The verb is derived from the noun.
Words you can make from fatwa
12 playable · top: WAFT (10 pts)
Best play waft 10 points3-letter words
6 words2-letter words
5 wordsHooks
1 extension · 1 back
A single letter you can add to fatwa to make another valid word.
Back
Find your best play with fatwa
See every word you can make from a set of letters that includes fatwa, or browse word lists you can mine for high-scoring plays.