businessman

American  

[biz-nis-man] / ˈbɪz nɪsˌmæn /

noun

• businessmen
  plural

1. a man regularly employed in business, especially a white-collar worker, executive, or owner.

---

businessman British  

/ ˈbɪznɪsˌmæn, -mən /

noun

1. a person, esp a man, engaged in commercial or industrial business, esp as an owner or executive

---

Usage

There is a gender-neutral form, businessperson , but it does not appear to be very widely used. The plural business people is quite widely used, and if you wish to avoid being gender-specific, you could try recasting your sentence to use the plural

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• businessmen
  plural

Etymology

Origin of businessman

First recorded in 1705–15; business + man

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

businessman businessmen

Capt. Bellows learns only that “her father’s a businessman in New York and her mother’s Turkish.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 16, 2026

Hot on Donald Trump's social media heels on Sunday night was the influential Russian businessman Kirill Dmitriev, CEO of the Russian Direct Investment Fund.

From BBC ● Sep. 7, 2026

One American businessman has spotted a potential commercial opening: sealskins.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 7, 2026

That businessman, Daniel Vorcaro, forged contacts with a sprawling network of politicians of every stripe, top judges and high-ranking officials before landing in jail for one of Brazil's biggest-ever financial scandals.

From Barron's ● Sep. 5, 2026

The businessman was a quick study, and excelled at split-second decisions in crisis.

From "Scythe" by Neal Shusterman

As The Times wrote, “hundreds of motion picture celebrities and wealthy society and businessmen and women in Palm Springs appealed to Los Angeles for aid.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 17, 2026

British-born businessmen Ben Delo and Christopher Harborne said they each gave £36 million, equivalent to $48.7 million, to Reform UK to help professionalize the upstart party ahead of the next general election expected by 2029.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 12, 2026

In Malta, home to 70,000 offshore companies and the headquarters of some of the world’s largest gambling groups, she wielded her pen against ministers and businessmen.

From Barron's ● Sep. 3, 2026

That’s because the group bought the team in 2010 for an estimated $480 million from American businessmen Tom Hicks and George Gillett.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 10, 2026

Newspapers ran stories about “the Bewitching Brokers,” and businessmen tolerated their presence in the all-male world of finance because they had Vanderbilt’s backing.

From "Votes for Women!" by Winifred Conkling