SETTLERS Synonyms: 45 Similar and Opposite Words

settlers

noun

plural of settler

as in colonists

a person who settles in a new region settlers learning to live in peace with the natives

Synonyms & Similar Words

Relevance

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

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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 More than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank since October 2023, according to Palestinian health authorities, a figure that includes those killed by Israeli settlers, while dozens of Israelis have also been killed. — Rena Rowe, The Washington Examiner, 5 Sep. 2026 The ambassador last month spoke out sharply after weeks of unrest in the town of Qusra, where settlers surrounded several homes including one owned by a Palestinian American. — ABC News, 5 Sep. 2026 The settlers are Israeli citizens, and Israel’s defense minister recently announced plans to fully transfer law enforcement among settlers to the Israeli police. — Ibrahim Hazboun, Los Angeles Times, 5 Sep. 2026 The settlers’ campaign to take control of territory now combines a political arm with an increasingly powerful military arm. — Amos Harel, Foreign Affairs, 2 Sep. 2026 Early settlers of the Valley constructed the Salt River's first dams and laid the groundwork for the area's future. — Alex Hager, NPR, 31 Aug. 2026 The attack occurred a few hundred yards away from three homes to which settlers laid siege this month, drawing international condemnation and an Israeli military deployment that residents say has kept them effectively trapped in their homes. — Pesha Magid Reuters, Arkansas Online, 30 Aug. 2026 Jerusalem — Israeli settlers stormed a Palestinian village in the occupied West Bank on Saturday and seized a home while its owner was inside in the latest brazen settler attack in the area. — Oren Liebermann, CNN Money, 30 Aug. 2026

Recent Examples of Synonyms for settlers

Noun

Japan regained sovereignty over the island in the 1970s, but the American military still has a heavy presence there, continuing tensions between locals and the armed colonists surrounding them.

— Richard Lawson, HollywoodReporter, 9 Sep. 2026
In his telling, the Lenape agreed to sell Dutch colonists only as much land on Manhattan as could be covered by a man’s breeches.

— Eric Lach, New Yorker, 26 Aug. 2026

Definition of colonists

Noun

Traditional Republicans who have supported, or at least gone along with, the party’s attacks on Muslims and immigrants and its rejection of democratic norms have spoken out against cracking the door open for anti-Semites.

— Jonathan Chait, The Atlantic, 5 Sep. 2026
The son of Taiwanese immigrants, Hsu was a precocious talent and became a professional skateboarder in his mid-teens.

— Hua Hsu, New Yorker, 5 Sep. 2026

Definition of immigrants

Noun

After all, modern hikers and campers have access to tools the pioneers could never have imagined.

— Elaine Reno, The Conversation, 8 Sep. 2026
The marker is the first in Miami-Dade County from the Florida Civil Rights Museum as part of its heritage trail honoring Black pioneers throughout Florida.

— Raisa Habersham, Miami Herald, 5 Sep. 2026

Definition of pioneers

Noun

Colombian medical clinics serving Venezuelan migrants closed after private funders kept them afloat for several months.

— James Pollard, Los Angeles Times, 9 Sep. 2026
Five days earlier, a joint operation involving several Turks and Caicos Islands agencies intercepted another overloaded boat with 171 Haitian migrants in the vicinity of Northwest Point, Providenciales.

— Jacqueline Charles, Miami Herald, 9 Sep. 2026

Definition of migrants

Noun

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
González has witnessed the ties between Mexico and its emigrants abroad evolve over four decades, starting as a young consular officer in the administration of Mexican President Carlos Salinas de Gortari.

— Alfredo Corchado, Los Angeles Times, 11 July 2026

Definition of emigrants

Noun

Research shows refugees and Kenyan businesses have also formed partnerships and supply chains linking Nairobi with camps such as Kakuma.

— Vivianne Wandera, semafor.com, 9 Sep. 2026
Those who lived there came as refugees or migrants from Germany, Spain, Portugal, the Ottoman Empire, modern Ukraine—and perhaps even beyond; and the Ghetto’s story cannot be told except through their own.

— Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 8 Sep. 2026

Definition of refugees

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“Settlers.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/settlers. Accessed 13 Sep. 2026.

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Synonyms of settlers

noun

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