capitalist

American  

[kap-i-tl-ist] / ˈkæp ɪ tl ɪst /

noun

1. a person who has capital, especially extensive capital, invested in business enterprises.

2. an advocate of capitalism.

3. a very wealthy person.

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capitalist British  

/ ˈkæpɪtəlɪst /

noun

1. a person who owns capital, esp capital invested in a business

2. politics a supporter of capitalism

3. informal a rich person

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adjective

1. of or relating to capital, capitalists, or capitalism

Other Word Forms

• anticapitalist noun
• capitalistic adjective
• noncapitalist noun
• precapitalist noun
• procapitalist noun

Etymology

Origin of capitalist

First recorded in 1785–95; capital ¹ + -ist

Example Sentences

In the midst of the cloud’s emergence in 2011, venture capitalist Marc Andreessen famously declared that “software is eating the world.”

From Barron's

I’m not a rabid capitalist, but why should art be different from other things?

From The Wall Street Journal

Sam Alexander, a venture capitalist and frequent traveler, said he recently booked flights for all of the trips he planned to take this year out of concern that rising gas prices would drive up airfares.

From The Wall Street Journal

Nikunj Kothari, a venture capitalist by day who builds apps by night, wakes up and checks his agents first thing in the morning, before coffee.

From The Wall Street Journal

He praised John Steinbeck’s “The Grapes of Wrath” for its descriptions of capitalist exploitation and Harriet Beecher Stowe’s “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” for the light it shed on slavery in the U.S.

From The Wall Street Journal

Related Words

• banker
• entrepreneur
• financier