mogul
1 Americannoun
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moguls
plural
noun
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any of the Mongol conquerors of India who established an empire that lasted from 1526 to 1857, but held only nominal power after 1803.
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any of their descendants.
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(lowercase) an important, powerful, or influential person.
a mogul of the movie industry.
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a Mongol or Mongolian.
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Railroads. a steam locomotive having a two-wheeled front truck, six driving wheels, and no rear truck.
adjective
noun
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a member of the Muslim dynasty of Indian emperors established by Baber in 1526 See Great Mogul
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a Muslim Indian, Mongol, or Mongolian
adjective
noun
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an important or powerful person
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a type of steam locomotive with a wheel arrangement of two leading wheels, six driving wheels, and no trailing wheels
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of mogul1
1960–65; < dialectal German; compare Austrian dialect Mugel small hill
Origin of Mogul2
First recorded in 1580–90; from Persian mughul Mongol
Explanation
If you’re the type of person who likes to be in charge, you may have dreams of becoming a mogul — that is, a powerful businessperson. The word mogul can refer to any powerful person — a studio mogul is a bigwig in the movie business, for example. The Mogul (or Mughal) Dynasty conquered India in the 16th century, and remained in power for hundreds of years. As a result, the word mogul became synonymous with "leader" or "ruler." A mogul is also a bump in a ski slope, but that root word is German.
Vocabulary lists containing mogul
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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:
But the tech mogul still has a lot of property in California, the state that houses Meta’s main headquarters.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 22, 2026
The singer and beauty mogul from Barbados, whose real name is Robyn Fenty, has not released a full album since 2016's Anti.
From BBC ● Aug. 6, 2026
But the billionaire Republican former real estate mogul has recently been more encouraging towards the Ukrainian leader.
From Barron's ● Aug. 3, 2026
I’d known of him as a New York real estate mogul from covering Trump’s first presidency, and New York politics and real estate before that, but only vaguely.
From Slate ● Jul. 22, 2026
She closed the slots between her flight feathers and maneuvered the bumps like a mogul skier.
From "Frightful's Mountain" by Jean Craighead George
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Appeared in the June 2, 2026, print edition as 'Media Mogul, 84, Reinvents Himself Yet Again'.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 2, 2026
Music Mogul AI is designed to fill that gap.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 13, 2026
Hugh and I, and oil industry drama Mogul were recovered from privately-owned collections.
From BBC ● Oct. 26, 2023
One balloon, part of Project Mogul, was designed to fly high and search over long distances for weak reverberations after a nuclear test.
From New York Times ● Feb. 17, 2023
For years, that was all I knew about the Hazaras, that they were Mogul descendants, and that they looked a little like Chinese people.
From "The Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseini
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Performers like Witherspoon and Kidman have become moguls in their own right.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 8, 2026
“Citizen Kane” posited that all media moguls are driven by a lust for power that stems from an irreparable brokenness.
From Salon ● Jul. 22, 2026
To understand how he did that, I spoke with dozens of former Clinton, Bush, Obama, Biden, and Trump administration officials, as well as academics, cryptocurrency and foreign policy experts, real estate moguls, and politicians.
From Slate ● Jul. 22, 2026
A new option for students is a small high school, founded by music moguls Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine, focused on project-based learning to impart the fundamentals of design, technology and entrepreneurship.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 9, 2026
He likes it here because there are Wall Street moguls everywhere and wherever he goes he can talk business.
From "Class Matters" by The New York Times
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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.