Dictionary.com
definitions
  • synonyms

millionaire

or mil·lion·naire

[mil-yuh-nair]
noun
  1. a person whose wealth amounts to a million or more in some unit of currency, as dollars.
  2. any very rich person.
Show More

Origin of millionaire

1820–30; < French millionnaire, equivalent to million million + -aire -ary
Related formsmil·lion·aire·dom, nounnon·mil·lion·aire, noun
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for millionnaire

Historical Examples

  • Mr. John Lambert was a millionnaire, a politician, and a widower.

    Malbone

    Thomas Wentworth Higginson

  • Even if my father were a millionnaire, I couldn't go on living on him.

    Wilfrid Cumbermede

    George MacDonald

  • It's not that the money would inconvenience him, for he's a millionnaire.

    Fruitfulness

    Emile Zola

  • It was easy to see she thought more of the caballero than the millionnaire.

    Roland Cashel

    Charles James Lever

  • But at twenty-five years of age one is seldom a millionnaire.

    The Sharper Detected and Exposed

    Jean-Eugne Robert-Houdin

British Dictionary definitions for millionnaire

millionaire

millionnaire

noun
  1. a person whose assets are worth at least a million of the standard monetary units of his country
Show More
Derived Formsmillionairess or millionnairess, fem n
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for millionnaire

millionaire

n.

1821, from French millionnaire (1762); see million. The first in America is said to have been John Jacob Astor (1763-1848).

Show More
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper