Shi'a

• Shia, Shiah, Shi'ah
• Schiah (obsolete)

From Arabic شِيعَة (šīʕa, “sect, faction, party; [collectively] followers, partisans”), as the word has been used in شِيعَة عَلِيّ (šīʕat ʕalī, “the faction of Ali; [collectively] the followers of Ali”) or الشِّيعَة (aš-šīʕa, “the Faction; the Followers”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈʃiːə/
• Rhymes: -iːə

Shi'a

1. (usually with article) The branch of Islam that believes that Ali succeeded Muhammad as leader, and that places emphasis on the prophet's family.
   • 1998, Geert H. Hofstede, Masculinity and Femininity: The Taboo Dimension of National Cultures‎, page 205:

     In Islam, Sunni is a more triumphant version of the faith than Shia, which stresses the importance of suffering, following the founder Ali, who was persecuted.

   • 2008, J. Gordon Melton, The Encyclopedia of Religious Phenomena, Visible Ink Press, page 181:

     Shi’a is one of the two larger divisions of Islam, […]

   • a. 2013, Bruce Anthony Collet, Refugee Education as a Gauge of Liberal Multiculturalism: Iraqi Students in Jordan and the United States in 2013, Heidi Biseth, Halla B. Holmarsdottir, Human Rights in the Field of Comparative Education, Sense Publishers, page 158:

     Jordanians do not know what Shi’a is about, and it was very recently, [the] last few years, when we start[ed] being exposed to Shi’a.

   • 2016, Abdul Ganiy Oloruntele, The Sunni and the Shi’A: History, Doctrines and Discrepancies:

     But the Shī'a was not yet a sect; there can as yet be no division of Islam between Shi'ite and Sunni.

   Synonyms: Shi'i Islam, Shi'ism

2. (with article, collective) The followers of this branch of Islam; the Shiites.
   • 2013, Robert Brenton Betts, The Sunni-Shi'a Divide, page 17:

     Throughout the Umayyad period, the Shi'a were confined to southern 'Iraq [...]

• Shi'a Islam
• Shi'a Muslim
• Shi'ism
• Shi'ite

• Shi'i

Shi'a (plural Shi'as or Shi'a)

1. Synonym of Shiite.

• HIAs, Hsia, Siha, ahis, isha