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:
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
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
‘I get $1,460 in Social Security’: My millionaire ex-husband, 74, refuses to pay alimony.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 25, 2026
Around 44,000 people fled the swanky Cap Ferret peninsula south of Bordeaux, known for its millionaire residences.
From Barron's ● Jul. 25, 2026
If the number was accurate, one out of every forty-five people in the town in the late seventies had reached millionaire status.
From "Friday Night Lights: A Town, A Team, And A Dream" by H.G. Bissinger
The capital pouring into AI has supercharged housing prices in San Francisco and created a new class of millionaires overnight.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 20, 2026
After the SpaceX IPO in June, at least 4,000 current and former employees are expected to become millionaires, with about 400 of them earning $100 million or more.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 12, 2026
The company's founder, Elon Musk, said on Fox News that SpaceX's listing on the stock market in June had likely made "several thousand" employees millionaires - including staff "who were working on the production line".
From BBC ● Aug. 6, 2026
In fact, three-quarters of millionaires have an adviser, the study concluded — more than double the rate of the average American.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 25, 2026
It’s not a real Seurat, because that would make us millionaires.
From "Liar & Spy" by Rebecca Stead
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.
