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conquistador

[kon-kwis-tuh-dawr, kong-, kawng-kees-tah-thawr] / kɒnˈkwɪs təˌdɔr, kɒŋ-, kɔŋˌkis tɑˈðɔr /
NOUN
conqueror
Synonyms
Antonyms
STRONG


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.

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Landing in Peru in 1531, during the Inca Civil War, the Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro found the Inca Road an ideal conduit for seizing the empire and draining it of its treasure.

From The Wall Street Journal Oct. 10, 2025

Others credit Spanish conquistador Hernan Cortes, who got a taste of chocolate after being served Xocolatl by Montezuma himself.

From Salon Feb. 17, 2025

A statue of the Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro has been reinstalled in the centre of Peru's capital Lima, more than 20 years after it was removed.

From BBC Jan. 18, 2025

To do so, he elicits help from fellow students, but their presentation is derailed by unlikely apparitions: a conquistador, a small child, Laura Linney.

From New York Times Mar. 29, 2024

When Hernando de Soto became the first European conquistador to march through the southeastern United States, in 1540, he came across Indian town sites abandoned two years earlier because the inhabitants had died in epidemics.

From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond

But the preoccupations among the conquistadores are plunder, religious conversions or, in Magellan’s case, an impulse to bring the world to his feet by making it navigable.

From The Wall Street Journal Apr. 23, 2026

Peru's largest archaeological sites are located outside Lima in places such as Cusco, which was the capital of the Inca Empire and fell to Spanish conquistadores in the 16th century.

From Reuters Nov. 22, 2023

To quote Daniela: “Our people survived slave ships. We survived Taíno genocide. We survived conquistadores and dictators. You’re telling me we can’t survive the D train to the Grand Concourse?”

From Los Angeles Times Jun. 11, 2021

Some of the vines had been planted centuries earlier, by conquistadores and missionaries.

From The New Yorker Nov. 18, 2019

Numerous as were the Native American victims of the murderous Spanish conquistadores, they were far outnumbered by the victims of murderous Spanish microbes.

From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond

The Spanish conquistadors who invaded Mexico, for example, put greater faith in crossbows and cold steel than the arquebus.

From The Wall Street Journal Jun. 19, 2026

Somewhat later, Spanish conquistadors followed Columbus across the Atlantic to conquer the Aztec and Incan empires, occupying significant parts of the Americas.

From Salon Sep. 20, 2024

The new findings, published in the scientific journal Nature, call into question previous theories concerning the spread of syphilis by the Spanish conquistadors.

From Science Daily Jan. 24, 2024

Some families trace their lineage to the 16th century conquistadors.

From Los Angeles Times Jul. 23, 2023

Even after the conquistadors seized Qosqo, the empire regrouped in the hinterlands, where it fought off Spanish forces for another forty years.

From "1491" by Charles C. Mann




Vocabulary lists containing conquistador


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