conquistador

American  

[kon-kwis-tuh-dawr, kong-, kawng-kees-tah-thawr] / kɒnˈkwɪs təˌdɔr, kɒŋ-, kɔŋˌkis tɑˈðɔr /

noun

• conquistadors,
  plural
• conquistadores
  plural

1. one of the Spanish conquerors of Mexico and Peru in the 16th century.

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conquistador British  

/ kɒnˈkwɪstəˌdɔː, konkistaˈðor /

noun

1. an adventurer or conqueror, esp one of the Spanish conquerors of the New World in the 16th century

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• conquistadores
  plural
• conquistadors
  plural

Etymology

Origin of conquistador

1540–50; < Spanish equivalent to conquist ( ar ) to conquer ( see conquest) + -ador -ator

Explanation

A conquistador is a person who is out to conquer new territory. A conquistador was the name given to the Fifteenth-to-Seventeenth century Spanish and Portugese soldiers who conquered much of the world, most famously the Central and Southern Americas. Not nice guys, but effective, and the term is still used today to describe certain people — ruthless business types, etc — who are brutally efficient at what they do. The most famous conquistador was the Spanish adventurer, Hernando Cortes, who subdued the mighty Aztec Empire of Mexico. The word comes, not surprisingly, from the Spanish verb conquistar, "to conquer."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

conquistador conquistadores conquistadors

Gen. George Patton and Hernán Cortés, the Spanish conquistador who famously destroyed his own ships so his soldiers couldn’t retreat.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 28, 2026

A new take on the Dark Knight comic book hero that faces off against conquistador Hernán Cortés.

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 22, 2025

Others credit Spanish conquistador Hernan Cortes, who got a taste of chocolate after being served Xocolatl by Montezuma himself.

From Salon ● Feb. 17, 2025

A statue of the Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro has been reinstalled in the centre of Peru's capital Lima, more than 20 years after it was removed.

From BBC ● Jan. 18, 2025

When Hernando de Soto became the first European conquistador to march through the southeastern United States, in 1540, he came across Indian town sites abandoned two years earlier because the inhabitants had died in epidemics.

From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond

But the preoccupations among the conquistadores are plunder, religious conversions or, in Magellan’s case, an impulse to bring the world to his feet by making it navigable.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 23, 2026

Peru's largest archaeological sites are located outside Lima in places such as Cusco, which was the capital of the Inca Empire and fell to Spanish conquistadores in the 16th century.

From Reuters ● Nov. 22, 2023

Wikipedia, in reference to this sixteenth-century bloom of conquistadores, says of Extremadura that its “difficult conditions pushed many of its ambitious young men to seek their fortunes overseas.”

From The New Yorker ● Jan. 6, 2020

Spanish conquistadores came to this region in the 16th century seeking the fabled Seven Cities of Gold.

From New York Times ● Nov. 6, 2019

For example, the Spanish conquistadores wished to exact tribute from Mexico’s defeated native populations, so they were very interested in the Aztec Empire’s tribute lists.

From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond

Francisco Vázquez de Coronado and his Spanish conquistadors had marched many miles through the desert in search of the reputed Seven Cities of Gold.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 28, 2026

That has been true since the vision of a land of gold — El Dorado — drew the Spanish conquistadors to these shores.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 10, 2025

Somewhat later, Spanish conquistadors followed Columbus across the Atlantic to conquer the Aztec and Incan empires, occupying significant parts of the Americas.

From Salon ● Sep. 20, 2024

The new findings, published in the scientific journal Nature, call into question previous theories concerning the spread of syphilis by the Spanish conquistadors.

From Science Daily ● Jan. 24, 2024

After trying it, the conquistadors ditched their steel breastplates and helmets wholesale and dressed like Inka infantry when they fought.

From "1491" by Charles C. Mann