oligarch

From French oligarque, olygarche, from Late Latin oligarcha, from Ancient Greek ὀλιγάρχης (oligárkhēs). By surface analysis, olig- (“few”) +‎ -arch (“ruler, leader”).

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈɒlɪˌɡɑːk/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈɑləɡɑɹk/, /ˈoʊləɡɑɹk/

• Audio (Southern England):

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oligarch (plural oligarchs)

1. A member of an oligarchy; someone who is part of a small group that runs a country.
2. A very wealthy business owner who wields political power.

   Synonyms: plutocrat, tycoonocrat

   • 1908 February 19, Jack London, chapter 17, in The Iron Heel, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., →OCLC, page 251:

     Millions of people were starving, while the oligarchs and their supporters were surfeiting on the surplus.

   • 2005, Bill Clinton, My Life‎^[1], volume II, New York: Vintage Books, →ISBN, →OCLC, →OL, page 49:

     Economic disaster loomed, as the rotting remains of the Soviet economy were exposed to free-market reforms, which brought inflation and the sale of state-owned assets at low prices to a new class of ultra-rich businessmen called "oligarchs," who made America's robber barons of the late nineteenth century look like Puritan preachers.

   • 2005 December 23, Judy Dempsey, “Ukraine's dance of the oligarchs”, in The New York Times‎^[2], →ISSN:

     But then, this is Ukraine. Since the country won its independence in the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Parliament has become dominated by the oligarchs - enormously wealthy industrial managers who have interests in steel, iron, coal, the media and soccer clubs.

   • 2006, Anders Åslund, Michael McFaul, Revolution in Orange, →ISBN, page 10:

     Ukraine's oligarchs emerged in parallel to Russia's, who have been more closely studied, and they were quite similar.

   • 2010, Max Lenderman, Brand New World: How Paupers, Pirates, and Oligarchs are Reshaping Business, Collins, →ISBN, page 19:

     The astronomical sales of the tome have proven once and for all that for teen girls and young women in Russia, the allure of marrying an oligarch is many times more powerful than acquiring fame or intellectual status.

   • 2016 February 4, “Mega-rich homes tour puts spotlight on London's oligarchs”, in The Guardian‎^[3], retrieved 2022-03-08:

     Borisovich said he also wanted to highlight how a group of “enablers”, such as lawyers, accountants, and bankers, were helping oligarchs launder their “ill-gotten gains” by investing the cash in prime London mansions.

   • 2016 December 6, Francis Fukuyama, “The Dangers of Disruption”, in The New York Times‎^[4]:

     He will be an oligarch in the Russian mold: a rich man who used his wealth to gain political power and who would use political power to enrich himself once in office.

   • 2021 October 3, “Revealed: ‘anti-oligarch’ Ukrainian president’s offshore connections”, in The Guardian‎^[5], retrieved 2022-03-08:

     On the campaign trail, Zelenskiy pledged to clean up Ukraine’s oligarch-dominated ruling system.

   • 2023 October 28, Simon Kuper, “How to be an oligarch”, in FT Weekend, Life & Arts, page 1:

     Lingelbach told me that Elon Musk went from tycoon to oligarch when he bought Twitter last year. The social media company, now renamed X, shapes opinion on events from Ukraine to Israel—often by platforming falsehoods.

3. (cosmogony) A protoplanet formed during oligarchic accretion.
   • 2016, Michael A. Seeds, Dana Backman, Foundations of Astronomy, Enhanced:

     In the inner Solar System, only the asteroid Ceres was able to grow fast enough to become a dwarf planet, but in the outer Solar System huge numbers of icy bodies formed, ranging from pebbles to the oligarchs now recognized as dwarf planets.

• minigarch
• oiligarch

• oligarchal
• oligarchic
• oligarchical
• oligarchy

•   oligarch on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Ultimately from Ancient Greek ὀλιγάρχης (oligárkhēs). This etymology is incomplete. You can help Wiktionary by elaborating on the origins of this term.

• IPA^(key): /ˌoː.liˈɣɑrx/

• Audio:

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• Hyphenation: oli‧garch
• Rhymes: -ɑrx

oligarch m (plural oligarchen, diminutive oligarchje n)

1. an oligarch (member of an oligarchy) [from late 18th c.]
2. a plutocrat, an oligarch, especially in relation to the former Eastern Bloc [from late 20th c.]

   Synonym: plutocraat

• oligarchie
• oligarchisch

• Afrikaans: oligarg
• → Indonesian: oligark