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
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of or relating to Jesuits or Jesuitism.
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
- Jesuitic adjective
- Jesuitically adverb
- anti-Jesuit noun
- pro-Jesuit noun
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.
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
Before that, when I was assigned a similar reading list as a student at Boston College, a Jesuit school, the goal was to cultivate moral and spiritual discernment.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 2, 2026
Sperbeck attended Jesuit High School in Sacramento and played quarterback at Sacramento City College in 1981 and 1982 before transferring to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.
From Los Angeles Times • Jul. 14, 2025
While he waited, he thought he would get some respite by going to a silent Jesuit retreat in rural Wales.
From BBC • Jun. 29, 2025
The streets are frosty , and icy, too, but the Jesuit church is warm.
From "Angela's Ashes: A Memoir" by Frank McCourt
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.