billionaire

American  

[bil-yuh-nair, bil-yuh-nair] / ˌbɪl jəˈnɛər, ˈbɪl jəˌnɛər /

noun

• billionaires
  plural

1. a person who has assets worth a billion or more dollars, euros, etc.

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billionaire British  

/ ˌbɪljəˈnɛə /

noun

1. a person whose assets are worth over a billion of the monetary units of his country

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• billionaires
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of billionaire

First recorded in 1855–60, billion + -aire, on the model of millionaire

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Explanation

Someone who lives in the U.S. and has money, property, and investments worth at least a billion dollars is a billionaire. Being a billionaire is dependent on a country's currency; in Europe, a net worth of a billion Euros makes someone a billionaire. There are around 2,500 Americans in this category, each possessing at least $1 billion — or a thousand million dollars. During the pandemic, U.S. billionaires increased their wealth by than $1.7 trillion dollars. The French billion was originally defined as "a million million," from bi-, "two," and million, but that was altered to "a thousand million."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

billionaire billionaires

She later became a billionaire, albeit briefly, when her media empire Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia was floated on the stock market in 1999.

From BBC ● Nov. 2, 2026

London City Lionesses are a club who do things differently and, backed by US billionaire Michele Kang, they are not shy to disrupt the current order.

From BBC ● Nov. 1, 2026

Only the California Institute for Immunology and Immunotherapy, co-founded by billionaire Gary K. Michelson, would qualify under the proposed criteria, according to No on 38, the campaign against the proposition.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 30, 2026

The billionaire had sought to get Universal listed in the U.S., saying its stock price had languished.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 29, 2026

He was a rich and famous billionaire white dude.

From "The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian" by Sherman Alexie

The residency of billionaires is often difficult to ascertain, given that many have multiple properties across the nation and around the world.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 31, 2026

Its current billionaires may number as many as 200.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 30, 2026

When DoorDash went public in December 2020, Xu and his co-founders became billionaires.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 29, 2026

Now at 69, his riches outstrip everyone on the continent, with a worth of $35.7 billion, according to the Bloomberg billionaires index, while Forbes estimates his fortune at $51.3 billion.

From Barron's ● Oct. 27, 2026

He’d had to make his way alone, and no one — not rock stars, not professional athletes, not software billionaires, and not even geniuses — ever makes it alone.

From "Outliers" by Malcolm Gladwell

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