Millionaire

How to spell millionaire

11 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce millionaire

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does millionaire mean?

1. nounA person whose wealth amounts to a million or more units of currency.

Millionaire in a sentence

• The lottery winner became a millionaire overnight.

• The tech founder was a millionaire before turning thirty.

Where does millionaire come from?

Language of origin: French

The word arrived in English from the French millionnaire, a person possessing a million units of currency. The base, million, traces back through Old French to the Italian millione, an augmentative of mille, the Latin word that simply meant 'a thousand'; the Italian form literally suggested a 'great thousand', a vivid way of naming an enormous quantity. The French suffix -aire (from the Latin -arius, meaning 'connected with' or 'characterised by') turned the number into a label for a wealthy individual. English adopted the term in the early 1800s, when great commercial and industrial fortunes were making such people newly visible. A useful spelling note: French wrote the word with a double n (millionnaire), but English settled on a single n while keeping the French -aire ending, which is exactly where modern writers slip.

How the word is built

• million (a thousand thousands)
• -aire (French suffix marking a person characterised by something)