capitalist
Americannoun
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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
- anticapitalist noun
- capitalistic adjective
- noncapitalist noun
- precapitalist noun
- procapitalist noun
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.
Venture capitalist Marc Andreessen famously said in 2011 External link that software is eating the world.
From Barron's • Apr. 10, 2026
After a lousy investing experience in the 1990s, Warren Buffett quipped that “if there had been a capitalist at Kitty Hawk, he should have shot down Orville and done us all a favor.”
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 10, 2026
The round was led Khosla Ventures, founded by prominent Silicon Valley venture capitalist Vinod Khosla.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 7, 2026
Venture capitalist David Sacks’ company, Craft Ventures, also announced in December that it has opened a new satellite office in Austin.
From MarketWatch • Mar. 23, 2026
Her son, the teenage Tolstoyan, believed that wealth was shameful, corrupting, inherently evil—which is ironic because Chris was a natural-born capitalist with an uncanny knack for making a buck.
From "Into the Wild" by Jon Krakauer
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.
