Jesuit
Americannoun
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Jesuits
plural
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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
Inflected Forms
Nouns
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.
See Examples For:
DeMaio grew up in Orange County, attended a Jesuit school in Maryland and graduated from Georgetown University.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 18, 2026
He was sent to a Catholic boarding school in England, but returned to Ireland as a teenager, where by the age of 18 he had begun studying to be a Jesuit priest.
From BBC ● Oct. 18, 2026
He grew up in Kolkata, moving between a convent school and a prestigious Jesuit boys' school where he first discovered music while cleaning instruments in the music room.
From BBC ● Apr. 17, 2026
Based on a novel by Shusaku Endo, a Jesuit named Rodrigues steps on the image of Christ to save the lives of Christian villagers in 17th-century Japan.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 1, 2026
Their teacher, a delicate Jesuit with forgiving eyes, would simply point him to a seat in the back row.
From "Dreaming in Cuban" by Cristina García
Yet Mr. Weber showed that Dutch Jesuits deployed the camera obscura as a metaphor in devotional literature and sermons.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 26, 2026
One of his last Facebook posts, earlier this month, as a Chicagoan educated by Jesuits, was, “pope leo XIV is a sout’ sider my friendts. his cassock size is 4XIV.”
From Los Angeles Times ● May 20, 2025
When he sought initially to become Pope in 2005 some Jesuits breathed a sigh of relief.
From BBC ● Apr. 21, 2025
"It's time to go forward," he asserts, quoting Father Frans, who he says inspired him to join the Jesuits.
From BBC ● Dec. 17, 2024
The Jesuits are commonly associated with caring for the mistreated and marginalized.
From "At Last She Stood" by Erin Entrada Kelly
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