prospector
Britishnoun
Explanation
A prospector is someone looking for mineral deposits. Prospectors are usually after gold. A prospector is a type of explorer, but one with a specific purpose: prospectors are after mineral deposits. Mineral deposits are found in the ground, so prospectors will commonly be looking down. They also use various tools—such as axes and metal detectors—to find the minerals they're after. Since gold is the most valuable mineral, it's long been the number one priority of prospectors. A prospector who finds gold could become rich.
Vocabulary lists containing prospector
Gold Rush: Mining and Metals
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In A Sedimental Mood: Rock and Gem Vocabulary
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Stargirl
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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.
Picking individual gold or silver miners is like betting on which prospector will find the nugget.
From MarketWatch • Dec. 19, 2025
"People would go in as a prospector, to flip bottles for two to three times the value."
From BBC • Aug. 9, 2025
Years later, the Azusa Herald quoted an old codger of a prospector — aren’t they all codgers? — that the Eldoradoville inundation “never stopped until it brought up in San Pedro Harbor.”
From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 11, 2025
“A commentary on the expulsion of the Greek banks from Egypt in 1961,” reads one note beneath the image of a gold prospector tunneling into a bank.
From Salon • Jan. 16, 2024
He had met a prospector on the quayside, a New Dane from the country of Texas, and this man had a balloon, of all things.
From "The Golden Compass" by Philip Pullman
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.
