stakeholder

American  

[steyk-hohl-der] / ˈsteɪkˌhoʊl dər /

noun

• stakeholders
  plural

1. the holder of the stakes of a wager.

2. a person or group that has an investment, share, or interest in something, as a business or industry.

3. Law. a person holding money or property to which two or more persons make rival claims.

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stakeholder British  

/ ˈsteɪkˌhəʊldə /

noun

1. a person or group owning a significant percentage of a company's shares

2. a person or group not owning shares in an enterprise but affected by or having an interest in its operations, such as the employees, customers, local community, etc

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adjective

1. of or relating to policies intended to allow people to participate in and benefit from decisions made by enterprises in which they have a stake

   a stakeholder economy

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• stakeholders
  plural

Etymology

Origin of stakeholder

First recorded in 1700–10; stake ² + holder

Explanation

A stakeholder is a person interested in a company. If you become CEO of a big company, you'll have to keep the interests of every stakeholder in mind, from the employees to the customers to the investors, whenever you make decisions. Supposedly people used to gamble by putting their money on a wooden stake, and a person called a stakeholder who wasn't involved in the betting would supervise to make sure everything was fair. No one uses wooden stakes anymore, but we still call the person who holds the money and monitors the betting the stakeholder, and people often use stake to mean "risk," or "investment." That's why someone who is invested in a business is also called a stakeholder.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

stakeholder stakeholders

The partnership was terminated last month, with the companies citing “prevailing market conditions, and shifting business and stakeholder priorities.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 8, 2026

“When you’re talking about BC2BC, you have a wonderfully strong foundation because of the investment and planning and stakeholder engagement within California that acts like a tethering,” she said.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 27, 2026

Uefa will hold an emergency meeting on Thursday afternoon to discuss its response to the controversial World Cup stakeholder plans proposed by Fifa and its president Gianni Infantino.

From BBC ● Jul. 30, 2026

Prominent money manager Bill Smead, whose firm has been an eBay stakeholder for nearly 20 years, says he doesn’t see a reason for eBay to sell to GameStop.

From Barron's ● May 8, 2026

Social capital usually means emotional support and encouragement from a reliable stakeholder in one’s life, an asset commonly associated with marriage that is itself a form of wealth.

From "Class Matters" by The New York Times

"There is no better moment to bring in business leaders to Brussels to reconnect with EU stakeholders and to reiterate our priorities," said Alexis van Maercke of Detergents Europe.

From Barron's ● Sep. 11, 2026

The DOJ ultimately approved Paramount’s planned acquisition, despite opposition from some industry stakeholders.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 9, 2026

Whether the 61-year-old’s return to tennis as an éminence grise can herd the sport’s notoriously scattered stakeholders together and strengthen the players’ position is the question du jour.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 9, 2026

While the stake gives them nominal control, the majority of supervisory-board seats held by union and government representatives requires them to regularly bargain with the other stakeholders.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 2, 2026

They are not - yet - stakeholders in their country's stability and prosperity.

From Russian Roulette: Russia's Economy in Putin's Era by Samuel Vaknin

Related Words

• shareholder