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
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.
Appeared in the December 30, 2025, print edition as 'Mississippi’s Capitalist Awakening'.
From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 29, 2025
He assigned his student a scholarly monograph, “Alienation: Marx’s Conception of Man in a Capitalist Society,” to begin his long education in how leftists think.
From Salon • Jan. 7, 2025
“A surprising number of nearly uninhabited, yet quite suitable places for establishing a new country still exist,” he informed readers of his Capitalist Country Newsletter in 1968.
From Slate • May 21, 2022
Lin, law professor at Temple University and author of “The Capitalist and the Activist.”
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 15, 2022
The Capitalist as the Vender of a Share in a Product.—Capital, as we have seen, also contributes a definite share toward the total amount of every product in the making of which it coöperates.
From Essentials of Economic Theory As Applied to Modern Problems of Industry and Public Policy by Clark, John Bates
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.
