magnate
Americannoun
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magnates
plural
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a person of great influence, importance, or standing in a particular enterprise, field of business, etc..
a railroad magnate.
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a person of eminence or distinction in any field.
literary magnates.
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a member of the former upper house in either the Polish or Hungarian parliament.
noun
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a person of power and rank in any sphere, esp in industry
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history a great nobleman
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(formerly) a member of the upper chamber in certain European parliaments, as in Hungary
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of magnate
1400–50; back formation from Middle English magnates (plural) < Late Latin magnātēs leading people, equivalent to Latin magn ( us ) magn- + -ātēs, plural of -ās noun suffix
Explanation
If you’re a hugely successful businessperson, particularly if you’ve cornered the market in a specific area, you’re a magnate. Magnates are often larger-than-life characters, like that oil tycoon who wears a cowboy hat with his tuxedo. Historically, a magnate was a man of noble birth (from the Latin magnus, meaning "a nobleman," or at least someone distinguished by his achievements. In the twentieth century, the stock of a magnate has rather fallen. If you’re vulgar and loud-spoken as well as rich, you’re probably a magnate. Thanks to the legendary movie producer Samuel Goldwyn, all film studio heads are now "studio magnates."
Vocabulary lists containing magnate
That's Great!: Magn
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Hidden Figures
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A Room of One's Own
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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.
See Examples For:
A few club members who relocated to South Florida or spend time there lined up to shake Bezos’ hand, including real-estate magnate Richard LeFrak and businessman Eddie Lampert.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 15, 2026
“It was a conversation,” said hotel real-estate magnate Richard Born, who received the dismissal letter.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 5, 2026
The L.A. billboard magnate whose name hung over the entrance to USC’s practice football field for a quarter century is suing the school for building a new, $200 million facility over top of it.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 23, 2026
South African mining magnate Patrice Motsepe on Wednesday ruled out a future in politics, dismissing speculation that he could one day run for the country's presidency.
From Barron's ● Jul. 22, 2026
The parade ended at Darling Stadium, the namesake of the oyster magnate whose creative entrepreneurship had brokered the land deal with the federal government for the Langley laboratory a half century before.
From "Hidden Figures" by Margot Lee Shetterly
But I’ve tackled enough of it to inform you that, sadly, ignoring Charles Schwab or J. P. Morgan Chase will not make the ghosts of these greedy American business magnates go away.
From Salon ● Mar. 24, 2026
The Wall Street Journal’s Gunjan Banerji is sitting down with business magnates, financial titans and upstarts from all walks of life to answer your questions about how they made their fortunes.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 23, 2026
St John Harmsworth – brother of newspaper magnates Lords Northcliffe and Rothermere – made Perrier a byword for mineral water across the British empire.
From BBC ● Aug. 8, 2025
It is, by design, capable of confronting not merely individual wrongdoers but vast criminal networks and incalculably rich corporations and commercial magnates.
From Slate ● Nov. 20, 2024
As Lawrence rose in professional esteem, his social circle came to encompass the banking and oil magnates who had become his financial patrons.
From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik
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.
