millionaire
Americannoun
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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:
Kevin said he was working on a bus route between Crewe and Newcastle-under-Lyme when he realised he had become a millionaire.
From BBC ● Jun. 12, 2026
The conflict-ridden country will vote Sunday for a new president, with polls predicting a June 21 runoff between leftist Senator Ivan Cepeda and right-wing millionaire lawyer Abelardo de la Espriella.
From Barron's ● May 29, 2026
Properly understood, every mother of two in this city is already a millionaire.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 11, 2026
Related: ‘I have more money than I know what to do with’: I’m a single millionaire with no heirs and don’t like spending.
From MarketWatch ● May 6, 2026
“Yeah, and if I had been puttin’ in work like you are when I was your age, I’d be grown up and a millionaire right now!”
From "Isaiah Dunn Is My Hero" by Kelly J. Baptist
Though the rate of growth in the number of millionaires continues to be striking, UBS shined a light on adults with wealth between $5 million and $100 million.
From Barron's ● Jun. 30, 2026
Donovan highlighted that the issue is not that the U.K. is losing its population of millionaires, but that growth is happening from an already large base in comparison with continental Europe.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 30, 2026
Batches of limited stock sales will be allowed in the coming months, however, and some real estate agents and bankers are putting together workarounds to help expectant millionaires leverage their future gains to secure loans.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 29, 2026
Blockbuster public offerings from SpaceX, Anthropic and OpenAI will mint a new generation of millionaires and billionaires overnight, newfound wealth that could deliver a windfall for America’s philanthropic organizations.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 14, 2026
Stanley thought he and Hector had become millionaires.
From "Holes" by Louis Sachar
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.
