magnatemag‧nate /ˈmæɡneɪt, -nət/ noun [countable] 
a powerful media magnate
WORD ORIGINmagnate
Origin:
1400-1500 Late Latin magnates (plural), from Latin magnus ‘great’EXAMPLES FROM OTHER DICTIONARIES
- Foundations set up by magnates such as Carnegie and Rockefeller provided most of the funding for the arts in the US.
- newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst
- She married a Texan oil magnate.
- the property magnate who owns the Empire State Building
- Bloomwater's present owner was a more prosaic figure, Sir Lionel Newman, the paper magnate.
- Both history and literature are full of stories of men who metamorphosed into magnates because they controlled some scarce factor of production.
- Both were his colleagues amongst the seven original confederate magnates.
- Inevitably the interests of individual magnates varied.
- John Fitzgeoffrey was evidently a man of considerable parts, respected both by his fellow magnates and by the king.
- Miss Hinkle was always trying to make me an office magnate, dictating letters and answering telephone calls.
Longman Language Activatora rich person
a person who is very rich, usually because they own land, property etc or because they have a family that has always been rich: · Taylor is a man of means. His family owns several apartment blocks in New York.· These were people of means who could afford to pay expensive legal fees.
a person who has a million pounds or dollars, or more: · The money to keep the hospital open was provided by a London millionaire.· I can't afford a new car just now. I'm no millionaire, you know.
a person who has many millions of pounds or dollars: · Louis Berg is a multi-millionaire who made his money in the newspaper business.
a rich and powerful person in a particular industry: · Foundations set up by magnates such as Carnegie and Rockefeller provided most of the funding for the arts in the US.steel/oil/shipping etc magnate: · She married a Texan oil magnate.· the property magnate who owns the Empire State Building
someone who makes a lot of money from a particular industry or business - use this about people who you think do not deserve to earn so much because they do not run their industry well, do not provide a good service etc: · They do not resent the city fat cats, but believe top businessmen deserve success.· Why should those fat cats get rich through our efforts?
informal use this when you are saying in a humorous way that someone has a lot of money: · Nowadays, if you're not a moneybags, some places don't want to have anything to do with you.
all the people who are rich in a particular country, society etc - use this especially when you are comparing them with people who are poor: · Under this government the rich seem to have got richer and the poor poorer.· Democracy gave the poor, as well as the rich, a part to play in governing the city.the rich and famous: · a tour around the Hollywood homes of the rich and famous
people who are rich, especially through owning land, property, or valuable possessions over a long period of time, who have a lot of power or influence in society: · Private health care should not be only for the wealthy.· The hotel stood by a lake, where the wealthy went to go fishing or pigeon shooting.
rich people and poor people - use this expression when you are comparing both groups: · The widening gap between the haves and the have nots is becoming very noticeable in New York.
COLLOCATIONS FROM THE ENTRY a powerful media magnateCOLLOCATIONS FROM THE CORPUSADJECTIVE
a rich and powerful person in industry or business SYN tycoonsteel/oil/shipping etc magnate a powerful media magnate· Capetian successes in Poitou and Aquitaine were heavily dependent upon the volatile loyalty of the great magnates and nobles on Poitou.· The church's vast wealth was accessible to the king on a scale denied even to the greatest of landed magnates.· But the influence of the great magnates survived this change.
· The local magnates exercised a limited but real authority entirely independent of the colonial administration.· Its leaders were local magnates who co-operated with each other by exchanging and transporting stolen cattle.
NOUN· Steve Forbes, the magazine magnate currently racing toward the top of the polls, had almost no contributors.· Q.: With the approach of the campaign season, why has magazine magnate Steve Forbes become such a hot item?
· James Bond now takes on international media magnates rather than Rosa Kleb.· Milano, sponsored by media magnate Berlusconi, are coached by Mark Ella and are the current title holders.
· Sukarno became fascinated by Hartini, wife of an oil magnate.
VERB· The publishing magnate is challenging front-runner Dole by attracting largely middle-class suburban voters seemingly alienated from the political process.
a powerful media magnate