entrepreneur

IPA/ˌɒntrəprəˈnɜː(r)/
KK[ˌɑntrəprənˈɚ]IPA/ˌɑːntrəprəˈnɜːr/

entrepreneur — noun

  • entrepreneursingular
  • entrepreneursplural

1. A person who starts and manages a new business venture, accepting the financial

1.nounB2
Definition

A person who starts and manages a new business venture, accepting the financial risk involved in order to earn money from an original idea or a gap in the market.

Example

After years in tech, Mei launched an app company and became a successful entrepreneur.

entrepreneur + launches/app + company

The entrepreneur persuaded a local bank to lend her money for a second bakery.

Common collocations
  • serial entrepreneur
  • successful entrepreneur
  • aspiring entrepreneur
  • tech entrepreneur
  • social entrepreneur
  • launch a business as an entrepreneur
  • entrepreneurial spirit
Synonyms
  • businessperson

    a broader term; an entrepreneur is a type of businessperson who focuses on innovation and startups

  • founder

    refers specifically to the person who establishes a company, often used for startups

  • innovator

    emphasises the creation of new ideas or methods, not necessarily tied to running a business

Antonyms
  • employee

    works for a salary under someone else's direction rather than taking on business risk

Usage Note

Commonly modified by adjectives that describe the industry (tech entrepreneur), the motivation (social entrepreneur), or the stage (serial entrepreneur — someone who starts multiple businesses).

Common Mistakes

He is an entrepreneur working in a big company.
He is an entrepreneur who started his own company.
An entrepreneur owns or starts a business; simply working at someone else's company does not make you one.

Word family

Synonym discussion

Sense: noun/1

Entrepreneur, businessperson, founder, and innovator overlap but differ in emphasis. An entrepreneur specifically starts ventures and takes financial risk — a tech entrepreneur who launches a hardware startup. A businessperson is any person engaged in commerce, whether owning a small shop or managing a division; not all businesspeople take the risk of starting something new. A founder is the person who establishes an organisation, but the term is common even for non-commercial entities (founder of a charity) and does not carry the same risk-taking implication. An innovator creates new ideas or methods, but may work inside an existing company or university without starting a business at all. For example, someone who invents a new battery material is an innovator; if they then raise money and build a company to manufacture it, they become an entrepreneur.

entrepreneur ↗businessperson ↗founder ↗innovator ↗

Common collocations

Nouns

Adverbs

Phrases

  • entrepreneurial venture
  • entrepreneurial activity

Prepositions

  • as an entrepreneur
  • of an entrepreneur

Etymology

LatinFrenchEnglish

Entrepreneur comes from the French word 'entreprendre', meaning 'to undertake'. It entered English in the 19th century through economic theory, where it described someone who 'undertakes' a business project — that is, takes on the work and risk of organising it. The historical root goes back to Latin 'inter' (between) and 'prehendere' (to grasp), giving the sense of 'taking hold of something in between' — an intermediary who seizes an opportunity between ideas and their real-world execution.