Teutonic Order

American  

noun

1. a religious military order founded c1190 in the Holy Land by German crusaders that originally did charitable work among the sick and later fought against the Slavic and Baltic peoples in the eastward expansion of medieval Germany.

---

Teutonic order British  

noun

1. Also called: Teutonic Knights.  a military and religious order of German knights, priests, and serving brothers founded about 1190 during the Third Crusade, later conquering large parts of the Baltic provinces and Russia

---

Example Sentences

The items reportedly also include documents from the Teutonic Order -- a Catholic brotherhood of crusading knights active in the Middle Ages.

From Barron's • Nov. 30, 2025

Warsaw had been asking for the return of the Teutonic Order archives since 1948.

From Barron's • Nov. 30, 2025

The Teutonic Order ultimately outlasted the other crusading orders by centuries.

From Textbooks • Jan. 1, 2020

These kingdoms lasted a remarkably long time; the Teutonic Order ruled Livonia until 1561, when it was finally ousted.

From Textbooks • Jan. 1, 2020

In 1225, another religious-brotherhood, the Teutonic Order, entered into Lithuania, and twelve years later the two orders united.

From The Story of Russia by Bergen, R. Van