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

They officially appeared together at an event the following year, where Chey said he had come to see himself as a coldhearted businessman with zero sympathy.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 23, 2026

Joginder Singh, a 45-year-old businessman volunteering at the camp, said supporters from Mumbai, Chennai and Punjab had been placing delivery orders directly to the protest site.

From Barron's ● Jul. 23, 2026

The 46-year-old, the son-in-law of the Indian billionaire businessman Lakshmi Mittal, had been a director and co-owner of Queens Park Rangers for 18 years before relinquishing his stake in the club on Tuesday.

From BBC ● Jul. 22, 2026

In 1993, he coordinated businessman Richard Riordan’s successful campaign for Los Angeles mayor by targeting homeowners’ anxieties about unemployment, crime and other symptoms of urban decay.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 22, 2026

Desperate to unload his stolen cache of documents, he approached a British businessman in Moscow named Greville Wynne, urging him to take a message to the British embassy.

From "Spies: The Secret Showdown Between America and Russia" by Marc Favreau

A cabdriver notices that businessmen make the world better.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 28, 2026

The two often present, especially in court documents, as simple businessmen just trying to make money.

From Salon ● Jul. 20, 2026

Guo Wengui, who was once believed to be one of China's richest businessmen, has been sentenced to 30 years in jail in the US for running a billion dollar scam.

From BBC ● Jun. 30, 2026

While Epstein was best known for his connections to businessmen and politicians, he cultivated a circle of top academics that helped launder his reputation until his arrest in 2019.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 17, 2026

In those days downtown Detroit was filled with shoppers and businessmen.

From "Middlesex: A Novel" by Jeffrey Eugenides