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Jesuit

[ jezh-oo-it, jez-oo-, jez-yoo- ]
/ ˈdʒɛʒ u ɪt, ˈdʒɛz u-, ˈdʒɛz yu- /
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noun
a member of a Roman Catholic religious order (Society of Jesus ) founded by Ignatius of Loyola in 1534.
(often lowercase) a crafty, intriguing, or equivocating person: so called in allusion to the methods ascribed to the order by its opponents.
adjective
of or relating to Jesuits or Jesuitism.
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Origin of Jesuit

1550–60; <New Latin Jēsuita, equivalent to Latin Jēsu(s) + -ita-ite1

OTHER WORDS FROM Jesuit

an·ti-Jes·u·it, noun, adjectivepro-Jes·u·it, noun, adjective
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use Jesuit in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for Jesuit

Jesuit
/ (ˈdʒɛzjʊɪt) /

noun
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
(sometimes not capital) informal, offensive a person given to subtle and equivocating arguments; casuist

Derived forms of Jesuit

Jesuitic or Jesuitical, adjectiveJesuitically, adverb

Word Origin for Jesuit

C16: from New Latin Jēsuita, from Late Latin Jēsus + -ita -ite 1
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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