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Gilded Age

American  

noun

  1. the period in the U.S. c1870–98, characterized by a greatly expanding economy and the emergence of plutocratic influences in government and society.

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.

These items, all life-size, reflect the taste of a Gilded Age industrialist.

From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 28, 2025

"More than that, though, it has also become symbolic of a lifestyle of a bygone era -- the type only possible with a Gilded Age fortune."

From Barron's • Nov. 11, 2025

“Inspired by late Gilded Age architecture and completed in 1899 by the celebrated designer John Duncan,” the description said of the property.

From MarketWatch • Oct. 24, 2025

Through the Kirklands and Scotts, we get to see what Gilded Age prosperity looked like for a privileged subset of Black Americans about which most viewers were never aware.

From Salon • Aug. 11, 2025

They resemble the arrivistes of the Gilded Age, which began in the 1880s when industrial capitalists amassed staggering fortunes, except that there are so many of them and they seem to be relatively anonymous.

From "Class Matters" by The New York Times

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.