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)
a person given to subtle and equivocating arguments; casuist
WordReference Random House Learner's Dictionary of American English © 2026
Jes•u•it /ˈdʒɛʒuɪt, -yuɪt, ˈdʒɛz-/USA pronunciation
n. [countable]
WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2026- Religiona member of a Roman Catholic religious order for men (Soˈci•e•ty of ˈJe•sus) that was founded in 1534.
Jes•u•it
( jezh′o̅o̅ it, jez′o̅o̅-, jez′yo̅o̅-),USA pronunciation n.
adj.
- Religiona member of a Roman Catholic religious order (Society of Jesus) founded by Ignatius of Loyola in 1534.
- (often l.c.) a crafty, intriguing, or equivocating person: so called in allusion to the methods ascribed to the order by its opponents.
adj.
- Religionof or pertaining to Jesuits or Jesuitism.
- Neo-Latin Jēsuita, equivalent. to Latin Jēsu(s) + -ita -ite1
- 1550–60
Collins Concise English Dictionary © HarperCollins Publishers::
'Jesuit' also found in these entries (note: many are not synonyms or translations):
Aloysius
- Bellarmine
- Black Pope
- Bolland
- Campion
- Hopkins
- Jesuit ware
- Jesuit's bark
- Jesuitical
- Jesuitism
- Jesuitize
- Marquette
- Molina
- Ricci
- Secchi
- Society of Jesus
- Southwell
- Suárez
- Teilhard de Chardin
- Xavier
- anti-Jesuit
- camellia
- cinchona
- juniorate
- prefect
- reduction
- scholastic
- tertian
- tertianship
- un-Jesuitic
- un-Jesuitical