magnate
Americannoun
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magnates
plural
-
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:
Financed by Walter Chrysler, the motor magnate, the skyscraper's construction began in 1928 and was completed two years later.
From BBC ● Oct. 8, 2026
Owner Matt Ellis is without doubt the lead character, having come in as a fan but also an incredibly wealthy and successful kitchen magnate.
From BBC ● Oct. 3, 2026
Hotel magnate Conrad Hilton bought the property in 1950.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 30, 2026
Trump, a former real estate magnate who promotes family enterprises at every opportunity, told Martin that Doonbeg was "one of the greatest courses in the world".
From Barron's ● Sep. 13, 2026
In New York, the sisters arranged a magnetic healing session with multimillionaire financier and railroad magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt.
From "Votes for Women!" by Winifred Conkling
In the beginning, this new movement was largely financed by a pair of Los Angeles oil magnates.
From Salon ● Aug. 13, 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
There he had to battle wealthy and influential utility magnates hoping to throttle the TVA at birth.
From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
