Define the word loyalist and explain how it was different from a patriot.

A loyalist is a person who is loyal to the established ruler or the government. The difference between a loyalist and a patriot is that patriots are the people who wanted America to gain independence and break away from Great Britain and loyalist remained loyal to Great Britain.

A loyalist was a colonist of the American revolutionary periods. They supported the British cause.
Google meaning: "The Revolutionary War split the people of the American colonies into two groups: the loyalists and the patriots. Patriots were people who wanted the American colonies to gain their independence from Britain. They wanted their own country called the United States."