Word.ws English Dictionary

big shot

big shot noun: a person with a reputation of importance or power.

Noun

big shot (plural big shots)

  1. (idiomatic, informal) A person with a reputation of importance or power.
    • They stopped traffic so some big shot and his entourage could have the whole road to themselves.
    • 'They're just making it look as if all their big shots were gaga. God knows how they're going to unscramble the whole business.'1953, Ian Fleming, “The White Tent”, in Casino Royale, London: Pan Books, published 1955, page 138
  2. (idiomatic, informal) A rare and significant chance to achieve fame or success.
    • her one big shot at the brass ring
  3. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see big, shot.

Synonyms of big shot

29 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of big shot

Forms of big shot

pluralbig shots
alternative formbigshot
alternative formbig-shot

Questions about big shot

What does big shot mean?
Big shot means a person with a reputation of importance or power.
What part of speech is big shot?
Big shot is a noun.
What is the plural of big shot?
The plural of big shot is big shots.

Words near big shot in the dictionary

  1. big screen
  2. big screens
  3. Big Shanty
  4. big shop
  5. big shops
  6. big shot
  7. big shots
  8. big show
  9. big shows
  10. Big Sioux
  11. big sister

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: big shot (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-big shot.ogg.

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