magnate

EnglishEdit

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for magnate in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.)

EtymologyEdit

From Late Latin magnātēs, plural of magnās, from magnus (“great”), mid 15th c.^[1]

PronunciationEdit

(US) IPA^(key): /ˈmæɡneɪt/, /ˈmæɡnət/
Homophone: magnet (/ˈmægnət/)

NounEdit

magnate (plural magnates)

Powerful industrialist; captain of industry.
- 2014, Jennifer Hayward, The Magnate's Manifesto, Harlequin (→ISBN), page 2:
  With a suitable amount of life experience under her belt, she sat down and conjured up the sexiest, most delicious Italian wine magnate she could imagine, had him make his biggest mistake, and gave him a wife on the run.
- 2015, Rod Judkins, The Art of Creative Thinking, Hachette UK (→ISBN)
  Sir Richard Branson is an English business magnate, best known as the founder of the multimillion-pound Virgin Group, which consists of more than four hundred companies.
I have decided to become an oil magnate, after spending quite some time reading the dictionary definition of the word magnate.
A person of rank, influence or distinction in any sphere.
- 1839 November 2, "Brindley in Manchester", New Moral World, page 857.
  […] but there is not an illiterate Justice of the Peace, or rural magnate in the form of a country squire, that would not detect such a man as an empirie at once, if he rested his claim to such an appointment on the score of his scholarship.