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proprietor

noun

Simple meaning

One of the owners of an unincorporated business.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

pruhpryuhter

Say the bold part a little louder.

US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

pɹəpˈɹaɪətɚ

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

noun

  1. A sole owner of an unincorporated business, also called a sole proprietor.

  2. One of the owners of an unincorporated business, a partner.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
C1 · Advanced
Frequency
Uncommon
Typical Use
Neutral / general English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: A sole owner of an unincorporated business, also called a sole proprietor.

Used this way, proprietor is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It turns up most in business or professional contexts.

Emotional tone
Neutral
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Not strongly marked
How common
Moderately common
Connotation
Matter-of-fact
Usage feel
Neutral and straightforward

Where it naturally appears

  • Business/professional

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

Sole / owners

sole proprietor

Owns

landed proprietor

Other combinations

registered proprietorpresent proprietornewspaper proprietororiginal proprietorlord proprietorhotel proprietor

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Word family

Words built from the same root.

  • proprietarynounDerived noun

    An unincorporated business owned by a single person who is responsible for its liabilities and entitled to its profits.

  • proprietynounDerived noun

    Correct or appropriate behavior.

Related words

Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.

  • proprietary colonynounRelated term

    A colony given to a proprietor to govern (in 17th century).

Related Words

Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.