magnates

Noun

magnate (plural magnates)

1. Powerful industrialist; captain of industry.
   • I have decided to become an oil magnate, after spending quite some time reading the dictionary definition of the word magnate.
2. A person of rank, influence or distinction in any sphere.
   • He mingled with the Magnates of his land; / Join'd the carousals of the great and gay, […]1814, [Lord Byron], “[Lara, a Tale.] Canto I.”, in Lara, a Tale. Jacqueline, a Tale, London: […] [F]or J[ohn] Murray, […], [b]y T[homas] Davison, […], →OCLC, stanza VII, page 10, lines 98–99
3. (historical) In medieval and early modern Italy, a member of a legally defined category of especially wealthy patrician families, often deprived of the right to political participation by republican governments.
   • Those considered politically dangerous could be excluded from office by declaring them magnates, while cancellation of magnate status was a mark of favour, a means of political patronage.2006, Christine Shaw, Popular Government and Oligarchy in Renaissance Italy, →ISBN, page 152