settlers

noun

plural of settler
1
as in colonists
a person who settles in a new region settlers learning to live in peace with the natives

Synonyms & Similar Words

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2
as in immigrants
one that leaves one place to settle in another in 1889 Jane Addams, in an effort to provide Chicago's latest wave of settlers with much-needed services, founded the city's first settlement house

Synonyms & Similar Words

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of settlers California’s system of water law dates back to the Gold Rush, when the state government promoted the extermination of Native people to make way for white settlers. — Ian James, Los Angeles Times, 1 Oct. 2026 The homeowner, Mahmoud Tubasi, told the AP that the soldiers initially brought him to his home but rioting settlers forced him to leave with his family in a military vehicle. — Arkansas Online, 30 Sep. 2026 Two months after Israeli settlers forced them out of their house, a Palestinian family was finally able to return to their home overnight – only to be attacked by settlers once again. — Zeena Saifi, CNN Money, 29 Sep. 2026 At the firing of a federal official’s gun, settlers scrambled to claim their squares. — Daniel Immerwahr, New Yorker, 28 Sep. 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for settlers
  1. colonists
  2. immigrants
  3. pioneers
  4. migrants
  5. emigrants
  6. refugees
Noun
  • The contest for our land came to be between the British crown and the colonists.
    — J. B. MacKinnon, Harpers Magazine, 29 Sep. 2026
  • The English lacked a body of laws specific to slavery; their colonists adapted.
    — Jill Lepore, New Yorker, 21 Sep. 2026
Definition of colonists
Noun
  • The hospital is 2½ hours from the nearest big city, Bismarck, North Dakota, where immigrants fly in and are picked up by hospital staff for the drive down to Hettinger.
    — Evelio Contreras, CNN Money, 3 Oct. 2026
  • So would Hilton at least be an advocate for undocumented immigrants?
    — Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 3 Oct. 2026
Definition of immigrants
Noun
  • Italy was once among Europe’s nuclear pioneers, operating four reactors before a 1987 referendum effectively ended the program.
    — ABC News, ABC News, 23 Sep. 2026
  • Wagering on outcomes as a way to forecast election results was supplanted beginning in the 1930s with the emergence of quasi-scientific polling techniques developed by pioneers in survey research such as George Gallup and Elmo Roper.
    — W. Joseph Campbell, The Conversation, 22 Sep. 2026
Definition of pioneers
Noun
  • The Coast Guard could not confirm Monday if the people on board were migrants because interviews with survivors had not yet been conducted.
    — David Goodhue, Miami Herald, 28 Sep. 2026
  • She was denied asylum under a Biden-era border policy that restricted eligibility for many migrants who crossed the southern border outside official pathways.
    — Mick Krever, CNN Money, 26 Sep. 2026
Definition of migrants
Noun
  • Baksheng leaves behind a family and then creates a new one with other Teochew emigrants at an inn run by a feminist daughter, Zia Lamgi (Li Sitong) who dodges a revolving door of suitors.
    — Randy Myers, Mercury News, 3 Sep. 2026
  • The decision could have broad implications for descendants of Italian emigrants, particularly in North and South America, where large Italian diaspora communities have ancestral ties to Italy.
    — ABC News, ABC News, 29 July 2026
Definition of emigrants
Noun
  • After war broke out over religious and political differences in 1642, people had to flee when their villages became war zones, while other places were filled with desperate refugees.
    — Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 28 Sep. 2026
  • Lamin has led a peaceful campaign supporting the right of Western Sahara to self-determination, a dream of Sahrawi refugees that has been frustrated for more than half a century.
    — Matthew Carey, Deadline, 28 Sep. 2026
Definition of refugees

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Cite this Entry

“Settlers.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/settlers. Accessed 5 Oct. 2026.

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