philanderer

American  

[fi-lan-der-er] / fɪˈlæn dər ər /

noun

1. a person, usually a man, who has many casual sexual encounters or affairs, especially when married or in a committed relationship.

   After three of his infidelities, she’d finally had enough of a husband who by all accounts had become a serial philanderer.

---

Etymology

Origin of philanderer

philander ( def. ) + -er ¹ ( def. )

Explanation

A philanderer is a guy who likes women. A lot. So much that he's got a beautiful wife — and a date with a different girl every weekend. The phil in philanderer means "love" and a philanderer's love never seems to stop. "So many ladies, so little time..." — That may just be the motto of the quintessential philanderer, those delightful serial womanizers who specialize in brief affairs of the carnal kind. A philandering husband doesn't just have a wandering eye. He also has wandering hands, and probably a long line of jilted lovers.

Example Sentences

Events come to a head and the skillfully written climax is so distant and chilly that it speaks to a waning of interest in the figure of the philanderer.

From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 31, 2025

I could tell them he wasn’t an American veteran at all—he was Canadian, and he was actually pretty rabidly anti-American, an oil engineer–turned–environmentalist, a serial philanderer.

From Slate • Sep. 22, 2024

When the Prince turns out to be a narcissistic philanderer, Cinderella wastes no time in trading her dream marriage for a more modest domestic arrangement with people who genuinely appreciate her.

From Los Angeles Times • Jul. 3, 2023

My disabled son - ‘the nobleman, the philanderer, the detective’

From BBC • Jul. 31, 2021

She is happy and well with the right man, but Heaven help her if the marriage ceremony links her with a philanderer!

From The Nervous Housewife by Myerson, Abraham