philanthropist

English

Etymology

From philanthropy +‎ -ist; compare French philanthrope.

Noun

philanthropist (plural philanthropists)

  1. A person who loves humankind in general.
    Antonym: misanthropist
  2. A person or institution who seeks to improve the world, especially by monetary gifts.
    • 1895, Marie Corelli, The Sorrows of Satan: or The Strange Experience of One Geoffrey Tempest, Millionaire […], 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: J[oshua] B[allinger] Lippincott Company, published 1896, →OCLC, page 15:
      […] and with a passing vague wonder as to what manner of man the ‘philanthropist’ might be who had more money than he knew what to do with, […]
    • 2025 June 28, Theodore Schleifer, Eli Tan, Mike Isaac, “Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan Narrow CZI’s Focus to Science Efforts”, in The New York Times‎[1], →ISSN:
      It is not uncommon for young philanthropists to retool their giving as they learn from their mistakes. Many other charities have only a single focus. But it has been jarring to allies of the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative to see such a wholesale discarding and downplaying of its prior work, especially given how public it had been about its goals.

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