Black Lives Matter
noun
Note: Black Lives Matter was founded by Black community organizers Patrisse Khan-Cullors, Alicia Garza, and Opal Tometi after George Zimmerman was acquitted of charges relating to his fatal shooting of Black teenager Trayvon Martin in 2012; the movement expanded as people reacted to police killings of unarmed Black people in years following. The name Black Lives Matter functions as a declaration that Black people's lives have as much value as white people's lives, and as a call to end systems and practices that challenge this fact.
—abbreviation BLMExamples of Black Lives Matter in a Sentence
Liliana Fannin, jsonline.com, 25 July 2025
Airing in September 2020, the episodes satirize the United States' handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and civil unrest amid the Black Lives Matter movement.
—Greta Cross, USA Today, 25 July 2025
Initiatives like the Changemakers Collective and seasons dedicated to causes such as Black Lives Matter, Pride Nights, and Say Her Name highlight this movement.
—Tiana Randall, Forbes.com, 25 July 2025
Giants of Africa, the Black Lives Matter movement in the NBA bubble, the prominence of women within the Raptors’ hierarchy, the hiring of an executive whose job was to explicitly shape organizational culture and inclusion — all of those things could have been done in a subtler way.
—Eric Koreen, New York Times, 24 July 2025
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Cite this Entry
“Black Lives Matter.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Black%20Lives%20Matter. Accessed 29 Jul. 2025.
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