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

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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 eleven hundred Palestinians in the West Bank have been killed either directly by settlers or by the Israeli security forces. — David D. Kirkpatrick, New Yorker, 29 Aug. 2026 Captured in the 1967 Middle East war, the West Bank is home to 3 million Palestinians and 500,000 Israeli settlers. — F. Brinley Bruton, NBC news, 29 Aug. 2026 Originally the homeland of the Ohlone Indians, the Mission was taken over by Spanish settlers in the 1700s and so named after the Catholic church at its center, now known as Mission Dolores. — Marissa J. Lang, NPR, 28 Aug. 2026 Rabah told The Associated Press that two settlers arrived with a tractor at his home in Khirbet al-Rakeez in the southern West Bank on Saturday afternoon. — ABC News, 23 Aug. 2026 Rabah told the Associated Press that two settlers arrived at his home in Khirbet al-Rakeez on Saturday afternoon. — Los Angeles Times, 23 Aug. 2026

Recent Examples of Synonyms for settlers

Noun

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
What happened to the colonists remains unknown, but archaeological finds—including otherwise anachronistic English artifacts on Hatteras Island—give some support to White’s theory that at least some of the colonists relocated willingly.

— Encyclopedia Britannica, Encyclopedia Britannica, 14 Aug. 2026

Definition of colonists

Noun

His videos drew dozens of aspiring food truck owners, many of them immigrants like Ochoa, who entrusted him with their life savings in hopes of turning their dreams into a livelihood.

— Ruben Vives, Los Angeles Times, 29 Aug. 2026
But between two women of color, in this case the reporter and subject–both daughters of immigrants–articulation was unnecessary.

— Rebecca Suhrawardi, Forbes.com, 29 Aug. 2026

Definition of immigrants

Noun

Digital dyeing is transforming how fashion gets its color, and one of the technology’s pioneers is now undergoing a transformation of its own.

— Angela Velasquez, Footwear News, 21 Aug. 2026
These platforms could simultaneously help the AI pioneers and power users in the operating forces learn and evolve more quickly.

— Emelia S. Probasco, Foreign Affairs, 20 Aug. 2026

Definition of pioneers

Noun

His announcement comes as Venezuelan migrants are encountering increasingly restrictive immigration policies across the hemisphere.

— Antonio María Delgado, Miami Herald, 26 Aug. 2026
In addition to the refugees, most of whom are women and children, more than 1 million Ukrainians were already living in Poland before the war, primarily as economic migrants.

— ABC News, ABC News, 25 Aug. 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

Little Saigon developed in the 1970s and ’80s, as refugees from South Vietnam fled the aftermath of the Vietnam War and moved to Southern California.

— Cu Fleshman, Travel + Leisure, 26 Aug. 2026
American sentiment was turning against newcomers, whether Vietnamese refugees, Cuban and Haitian boat people, Central Americans fleeing civil wars or Mexicans looking for economic opportunity.

— Gustavo Arellano, Los Angeles Times, 26 Aug. 2026

Definition of refugees

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“Settlers.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/settlers. Accessed 30 Aug. 2026.

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Synonyms of settlers

noun

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