Magnate

• POS: Noun
• HYPHEN: mag=nate

CIDE DICTIONARY

Magnate,  [F. magnat, L. (pl.) magnates, magnati, fr. magnus great. See Master.].

•  A person of rank; a noble or grandee; a person of influence or distinction in any sphere; -- used mostly of prominent business executives; as, an industrial magnate.  Macaulay.  [1913 Webster]
•  One of the nobility, or certain high officers of state belonging to the noble estate in the national representation of Hungary, and formerly of Poland.  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

Magnate, n. a wealthy and influential person, esp. in business (shipping magnate; financial magnate).

Etymology

ME f. LL magnas -atis f. L magnus great

THESAURUS

Magnate

Brahman, Establishment, VIP, archduke, aristocrat, armiger, banker, baron, baronet, big boss, big businessman, big gun, big man, big name, big wheel, big-timer, bigwig, blue blood, brass, brass hat, business leader, businessman, captain of industry, celebrity, count, czar, daimio, dignitary, dignity, director, duke, earl, elder, enterpriser, entrepreneur, esquire, fat cat, father, figure, financier, gentleman, grand duke, grandee, great man, hidalgo, important person, industrialist, interests, king, lace-curtain, laird, landgrave, lion, little businessman, lord, lordling, lords of creation, magnifico, man of commerce, man of mark, manager, margrave, marquis, merchant prince, mogul, nabob, name, noble, nobleman, notability, notable, optimate, palsgrave, panjandrum, patrician, peer, person of renown, personage, personality, pillar of society, plutocrat, power, power elite, prince, ruling circle, sachem, seigneur, seignior, silk-stocking, somebody, something, squire, swell, the great, the top, thoroughbred, top brass, top executive, top people, tycoon, upper-cruster, very important person, viscount, waldgrave, worthy

ROGET THESAURUS

Magnate

Nobility

N nobility, rank, condition, distinction, optimacy, blood, pur sang, birth, high descent, order, quality, gentility, blue blood of Castile, ancien regime, high life, haute monde, upper classes, upper ten thousand, the four hundred, elite, aristocracy, great folks, fashionable world, peer, peerage, house of lords, house of peers, lords, lords temporal and spiritual, noblesse, noble, nobleman, lord, lordling, grandee, magnifico, hidalgo, daimio, daimyo, samurai, shizoku, don, donship, aristocrat, swell, three- tailed bashaw, gentleman, squire, squireen, patrician, laureate, gentry, gentlefolk, squirarchy, better sort magnates, primates, optimates, pantisocracy, king, atheling, prince, duke, marquis, marquisate, earl, viscount, baron, thane, banneret, baronet, baronetcy, knight, knighthood, count, armiger, laird, signior, seignior, esquire, boyar, margrave, vavasour, emir, ameer, scherif, sharif, effendi, wali, sahib, chevalier, maharaja, nawab, palsgrave, pasha, rajah, waldgrave, princess, begum, duchess, marchioness, countess, lady, dame, memsahib, Do$a, maharani, rani, personage of distinction, man of distinction, personage of rank, man of rank, personage of mark, man of mark, notables, notabilities, celebrity, bigwig, magnate, great man, star, superstar, big bug, big gun, great gun, gilded rooster, magni nominis umbra, every inch a king, noble, exalted, of rank, princely, titled, patrician, aristocratic, high-, well-born, of gentle blood, genteel, comme il faut, gentlemanlike, courtly, highly respectable, in high quarters, Adel sitzt im Gemuthe nicht im Gebluete, adelig und edel sind zweierlei, noblesse oblige.