capitalist
Americannoun
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capitalists
plural
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a person who has capital, especially extensive capital, invested in business enterprises.
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an advocate of capitalism.
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a very wealthy person.
noun
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a person who owns capital, esp capital invested in a business
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politics a supporter of capitalism
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informal a rich person
adjective
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of capitalist
Explanation
Someone who hopes to profit by investing money or financing business ventures is a capitalist. A nation's economy is described as capitalist if it's based on private ownership and profit. The word capitalist appeared in 1791, taken from the French word capitaliste. A capitalist is someone who believes in the economic philosophy of Capitalism, a system of privately-owned, for-profit businesses. A capitalist might believe in free enterprise and the individual’s ability to gain wealth through intelligence and hard work. Capitalist can also be used to describe a self-interested, every-man-for-himself approach to the world.
Vocabulary lists containing capitalist
East Asia - Middle School
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East Asia - High School
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Russia - Middle School and High School
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Initially, the gathering of black people from across the globe was, he felt, "a beautiful, profound experience devoid of capitalist motives".
From BBC ● Aug. 16, 2026
Iger and Kushner, a billionaire venture capitalist and founder of New York-based Thrive Capital, will own one of the most storied NBA teams.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 12, 2026
Venture capitalist Pete Soderling was ready to back a London startup led by an experienced artificial-intelligence researcher.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 3, 2026
The tech leaders included Eric Schmidt, former Google chief executive; Reid Hoffman, a LinkedIn co-founder; Vinod Khosla, a venture capitalist; Yann LeCun, a computer scientist; and Jack Clark, a co-founder of Anthropic.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 14, 2026
“A cat is a cat. There are no foreign cats, no Chinese cats, no capitalist cats, no Communist cats. Just cats.”
From "Homesick" by Jean Fritz
Today’s venture capitalists often don’t have the influence to guide or shape companies the way they once did because of heightened competition.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 18, 2026
Like venture capitalists hoping to get in on startups’ seed rounds, some producers are trying to link up with online horror talent before they are even ready for Hollywood.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 10, 2026
Tech executives, venture capitalists and business leaders have donated roughly $118 million to a nonprofit called Building a Better California, according to data on the secretary of state’s website.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 18, 2026
He’ll also join the audit committee alongside board members and venture capitalists Randy Glein and Steve Jurvetson.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 17, 2026
Decades after first touching the Americas, London’s venture capitalists still hadn’t figured out that New England is colder than Britain despite being farther south.
From "1491" by Charles C. Mann
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
