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:
It has also received more than $17 million from venture capitalist L. John Doerr, $12 million from Ripple Labs founder Chris Larsen and $3 million from philanthropist and former Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 18, 2026
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
Bob Iger, Disney’s longtime chief executive, and Joshua Kushner, a venture capitalist and younger brother of Jared Kushner, agreed to buy the Lakers.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 12, 2026
Legendary venture capitalist Bill Gurley was especially blunt in his own social-media post: “If OpenAI violated Hugging Face in a way that ‘demands’ new regulation; let’s start with a formal criminal investigation.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 25, 2026
Polly said, “He’s swallowed the anchor. He’s a capitalist now.”
From "Carry On, Mr. Bowditch" by Jean Lee Latham
With venture capitalists -- and even sovereign wealth funds -- no longer able to play in that league, higher sums can only be found on the public markets.
From Barron's ● Aug. 26, 2026
Venture capitalists lose money on most of what they fund, and nobody calls a failed startup a scandal.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 25, 2026
Khosla, one of the world’s most prominent venture capitalists, has been at the center of a technology boom that has made him and many of his peers crazy rich.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 5, 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
I don’t believe the war is simply the work of politicians and capitalists.
From "The Diary of a Young Girl" by Anne Frank
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.
