philanderer

American  

[fi-lan-der-er] / fɪˈlæn dər ər /

noun

1. a person, usually a man, who has many casual sexual encounters or affairs, especially when married or in a committed relationship.

   After three of his infidelities, she’d finally had enough of a husband who by all accounts had become a serial philanderer.

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Etymology

Origin of philanderer

philander ( def. ) + -er ¹ ( def. )

Explanation

A philanderer is a guy who likes women. A lot. So much that he's got a beautiful wife — and a date with a different girl every weekend. The phil in philanderer means "love" and a philanderer's love never seems to stop. "So many ladies, so little time..." — That may just be the motto of the quintessential philanderer, those delightful serial womanizers who specialize in brief affairs of the carnal kind. A philandering husband doesn't just have a wandering eye. He also has wandering hands, and probably a long line of jilted lovers.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

philanderer

And there’s the leering, preening Rupert Mannion from “Ted Lasso” — multimillionaire soccer team owner, inveterate philanderer and incurably vindictive divorcé.

From Salon ● Jun. 12, 2026

John Caldwell, a former Detective Chief Inspector, described the killer of showjumper Katie Simpson, as a "bad boy" or "philanderer", according to material seen by BBC News.

From BBC ● May 13, 2026

Events come to a head and the skillfully written climax is so distant and chilly that it speaks to a waning of interest in the figure of the philanderer.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 31, 2025

I could tell them he wasn’t an American veteran at all—he was Canadian, and he was actually pretty rabidly anti-American, an oil engineer–turned–environmentalist, a serial philanderer.

From Slate ● Sep. 22, 2024

I am a business man, Lady Simpson, not a philanderer.

From The Prince of Graustark by McCutcheon, George Barr