proprietor

American  

[pruh-prahy-i-ter] / prəˈpraɪ ɪ tər /

noun

• proprietors
  plural

1. the owner of a business establishment, a hotel, etc.

2. a person who has the exclusive right or title to something; an owner, as of real property.

3. a group of proprietors; proprietary.

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proprietor British  

/ prəˌpraɪəˈtɔːrɪəl, prəˈpraɪətə /

noun

1. an owner of an unincorporated business enterprise

2. a person enjoying exclusive right of ownership to some property

3. history a governor or body of governors of a proprietary colony

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• nonproprietor
  noun
• proprietorship
  noun
• proprietress
  noun
• proprietorial
  adjective
• proprietorially
  adverb

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• proprietors
  plural

Etymology

Origin of proprietor

First recorded in 1630–40; propriet(ary) + -or ²

Explanation

Someone who owns a business or a property is a proprietor. A bookstore proprietor might wish she became a librarian instead so the books would come back. The first part of proprietor sounds a lot like "property," and a proprietor is someone with ownership of property. Sometimes a proprietor oversees the business, such as a restaurant proprietor who is also a chef or hostess, and other times a proprietor owns many businesses and has different people running them. A proprietor of a local bakery might make and sell his own donuts, while the proprietor of a chain of donut shops might work from an office managing the people who manage the stores.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

proprietor proprietors

A furniture store proprietor in Inglewood laid off his employees after the immigration enforcement surge last summer and says he now works twice as hard to earn half as much as he did before.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 22, 2026

However, there are other risks associated with being a sole proprietor that should be considered.

From MarketWatch ● May 26, 2026

For Joshua Pollack, the New Jersey-born proprietor of Rosenberg’s Bagels & Delicatessen in Denver, making an authentic New York bagel starts with producing authentic New York water, which many consider essential.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 9, 2026

"We are suffering a lot," said Kishor Dulera, a tile unit proprietor who closed this factory and two others in early March, sending hundreds of workers home.

From Barron's ● Mar. 29, 2026

I went in and asked the proprietor if a boy had been in.

From "Black Boy" by Richard Wright

Bucket shop patrons were positioned heavily for Amalgamated to rise, so the proprietors shorted the stock “to establish as low a quotation as possible,” the Journal wrote.

From Barron's ● Apr. 7, 2026

To keep costs low, the couple looks for contractors who are sole proprietors and don’t have to cover the overhead of a big company.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 10, 2025

This should lead to, among other thing, higher after-tax earnings for sole proprietors and small firms; stronger loan demand for community banks; and better exit economics for early stage investors, SocGen reckons.

From MarketWatch ● Nov. 27, 2025

But sole proprietors have to pay both parts of the self-employment tax on all income, whereas S corps can get a break here.

From Salon ● Dec. 2, 2024

White proprietors who cater exclusively to Negro trade stood in doorways and solicited us.

From "Black Like Me" by John Howard Griffin