entrepreneur

American  

[ahn-truh-pruh-nur, -noor, ahn-truh-pruh-nœr] / ˌɑn trə prəˈnɜr, -ˈnʊər, ɑ̃ trə prəˈnœr /

noun

plural

entrepreneurs

1. a person who organizes and manages any enterprise, especially a business, usually with considerable initiative and risk.

2. an employer of productive labor; contractor.

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verb (used with object)

1. to deal with or initiate as an entrepreneur.

verb (used without object)

1. to act as an entrepreneur.

entrepreneur British  

/ ˌɒntrəprəˈnɜː, ɑ̃trəprənœr /

noun

1. the owner or manager of a business enterprise who, by risk and initiative, attempts to make profits

2. a middleman or commercial intermediary

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entrepreneur Cultural  

1. One who starts a business or other venture that promises economic gain but that also entails risks.

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Other Word Forms

• entrepreneurial adjective
• entrepreneurship noun

Etymology

Origin of entrepreneur

First recorded in 1875–80; from French: literally, “one who undertakes (some task),” equivalent to entrepren(dre) “to undertake” (from Latin inter- inter- + prendere “to take,” variant of prehendere ) + -eur -eur; enterprise

Example Sentences

Kwon, the brash entrepreneur who founded Terraform in 2018, was sentenced to 15 years in prison last week after pleading guilty to two criminal counts in August.

From The Wall Street Journal

The entrepreneur earlier this year used his own money to launch Lorelight, a tool designed to optimize the presence of brands in LLM results.

From The Wall Street Journal

Sivakumar spent much of October talking to entrepreneurs to nail down an investment.

From The Wall Street Journal

At first, Coupang, which was founded by a Korean-American entrepreneur, said it had experienced a data “exposure” affecting roughly 4,500 customer accounts.

From The Wall Street Journal

The family of late tech entrepreneur Tony Hsieh filed a formal objection Monday to a purported will of mysterious origin that surfaced earlier this year.

From The Wall Street Journal

Related Words

• administrator
• contractor
• executive
• manager
• producer