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

Etymology

Origin of billionaire

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

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

Billionaire entrepreneur Bezos was speaking about his new AI venture Prometheus, which is focused on accelerating physical manufacturing - a sector which is becoming increasingly automated.

From BBC • Jun. 17, 2026

He’ll also likely be the last trillionaire for a while, given that the second-richest individual is Google co-founder Larry Page, whose net worth is just $304 billion, per Bloomberg’s Billionaire Index.

From MarketWatch • Jun. 12, 2026

Billionaire hedge fund founder turned environmentalist Tom Steyer was in third place with 22.5% — knocking the Democrat out of contention for the November election.

From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 11, 2026

Billionaire Tilman Fertitta has reached an agreement to buy Caesars Entertainment CZR 1.41%increase; green up pointing triangle for about $5.7 billion.

From The Wall Street Journal • May 28, 2026

“I’d make a go at Little Orphan Billionaire myself, except he wouldn’t stop looking at you. Hey, speaking of which, here’s a fascinating piece of trivia: Guess who gets Pickett’s billions if he dies?”

From "Turtles All the Way Down" by John Green