Jesuit

American  

[jezh-oo-it, jez-oo-, jez-yoo-] / ˈdʒɛʒ u ɪt, ˈdʒɛz u-, ˈdʒɛz yu- /

noun

1. a member of a Roman Catholic religious order Society of Jesus founded by Ignatius of Loyola in 1534.

2. (often lowercase) a crafty, intriguing, or equivocating person: so called in allusion to the methods ascribed to the order by its opponents.

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adjective

1. of or relating to Jesuits or Jesuitism.

Jesuit British  

/ ˈdʒɛzjʊɪt /

noun

1. a member of a Roman Catholic religious order (the Society of Jesus ) founded by Saint Ignatius Loyola in 1534 with the aims of defending the papacy and Catholicism against the Reformation and to undertake missionary work among the heathen

2. informal (sometimes not capital) a person given to subtle and equivocating arguments; casuist

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Other Word Forms

• Jesuitic
  adjective
• Jesuitically
  adverb
• anti-Jesuit
  noun
• pro-Jesuit
  noun

Etymology

Origin of Jesuit

1550–60; < New Latin Jēsuita, equivalent to Latin Jēsu ( s ) + -ita -ite ¹

Example Sentences

It’s one of the many issues he addresses in “Conversations on Faith,” written by Mr. Scorsese and Antonio Spadaro, an Italian Jesuit, theologian and essayist.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 1, 2026

He was the first pope from the Americas, the first from the Jesuit order, and the first to take the name Francis.

From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 23, 2025

Christ Blessing by Quentin Massys, dating from about 1500, used to hang behind the altar in the community's chapel of Campion Hall, the Jesuit home for research and study at the University of Oxford.

From BBC • Dec. 8, 2025

At Loyola High he absorbed the Jesuit maxim of being a man for others.

From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 25, 2025

In the end the state agreed I was best off with the Jesuit brothers.”

From "Black Swan Green" by David Mitchell