Jesuit
Americannoun
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a member of a Roman Catholic religious order Society of Jesus founded by Ignatius of Loyola in 1534.
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(often lowercase) a crafty, intriguing, or equivocating person: so called in allusion to the methods ascribed to the order by its opponents.
adjective
noun
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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
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informal (sometimes not capital) a person given to subtle and equivocating arguments; casuist
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Etymology
Origin of Jesuit
1550–60; < New Latin Jēsuita, equivalent to Latin Jēsu ( s ) + -ita -ite 1
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Liam and Enda leave by choice—Liam for India as a Jesuit missionary and Enda for America with her fiddle—though leaving is a heartbreak.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 29, 2026
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
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
Powe’s relatives belonged to the Knights, named for a 17th century Spanish Jesuit who ministered to enslaved people in Colombia and is the country’s patron saint.
From Los Angeles Times • Aug. 22, 2025
Religion doesn’t come up much for Dr. Atchley, and when it does, he can call on the years he spent at a Jesuit high school.
From "A Deadly Wandering: A Mystery, a Landmark Investigation, and the Astonishing Science of Attention in the Digital Age" by Matt Richtel
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
