millionaire
Americannoun
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millionaires
plural
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a person whose wealth amounts to a million or more in some unit of currency, as dollars.
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any very rich person.
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of millionaire
1820–30; < French millionnaire, equivalent to million million + -aire -ary
Compare meaning
How does millionaire compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:
Explanation
A millionaire is someone who has at least a million dollars. If you're a millionaire, you are incredibly wealthy — but not as rich as a billionaire. In U.S., if you have a million dollars — or things that are worth that much, like a million-dollar house — you're a millionaire. In the U.K., a millionaire has a million pounds. This word describes a specific amount of wealth, but it's also a metaphor for "rich," so you might say, "My neighbors are millionaires — they travel to foreign countries all the time!" The first American millionaire was John Jacob Astor, who earned his riches from 18th-century fur trading.
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:
De la Espriella, a flamboyant 48-year-old millionaire, was elected in June on an anti-establishment platform.
From Barron's ● Sep. 8, 2026
A millionaire businessman and former rock musician Paul McManus has since taken over the legal rights of that case and has said he will continue the action.
From BBC ● Aug. 27, 2026
In fact, renter households with incomes over $100,000 have been the fastest-growing segment of renters over the past decade, according to the Aspen Institute, including a growing class of millionaire renters.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 26, 2026
John David Washington and Conrad Ricamora star in Andrew Stein’s thrilling and timely play about a Silicon Valley millionaire who sneakily tests his psychologically invasive new creation on his friends.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 4, 2026
When it actually hit me that I was the winner and I would have the opportunity to become a millionaire by simply sinking a foul shot, I couldn’t control myself.
From "The Million Dollar Shot" by Dan Gutman
Investment banking revenues are up, and wealth-management divisions are winning new AI millionaires as clients.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 15, 2026
UBS bills itself as the bank for billionaires and serves hundreds of thousands of American millionaires.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 15, 2026
“It’s not just millionaires and billionaires,” she said.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 9, 2026
“We need our billionaires, our millionaires and all our companies and people who are paying taxes, especially when the federal government is not giving us our fair share,” Ma said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 1, 2026
I asked her how it made her feel to know that there were homeless people and millionaires living in the same city.
From "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close" by Jonathan Safran Foer
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.
