oligarch

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A very wealthy business owner who wields political power.

   Millions of people were starving, while the oligarchs and their supporters were surfeiting on the surplus.

2. 2
   noun

   A protoplanet formed during oligarchic accretion.

   In the inner Solar System, only the asteroid Ceres was able to grow fast enough to become a dwarf planet, but in the outer Solar System huge numbers of icy bodies formed, ranging from pebbles to the oligarchs now recognized as dwarf planets.

3. 3
   noun

   one of the rulers in an oligarchy

4. 4
   noun

   A member of an oligarchy; someone who is part of a small group that runs a country.

From French oligarque, olygarche, from Late Latin oligarcha, from Ancient Greek ὀλιγάρχης (oligárkhēs). By surface analysis, olig- (“few”) + -arch (“ruler, leader”).

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