The noun magnate, meaning a powerful or influential person in business or industry, is traditionally pronounced MAG-nate, but it’s sometimes pronounced MAG-net. And because the latter pronunciation is so common, occasional misuse of magnet in place of magnate is inevitable. For example, these writers use magnet in place of magnate:
I decided to become a 12-year-old oil magnet. [Lancaster Eagle-Gazette (article now offline)]
The Nigerian business magnet is now richer than long-time white South African billionaire … [Nigeria Daily Independent]
The opposite error is less common but not unheard of—for example:
Power is a great magnate for those who seek to use influence to benefit themselves … [National Post]
These writers use magnate correctly:
He was not interested in the main subjects of the painting””the railroad magnate and his well-dressed companions, picnicking on a lawn … [Lantern Review]
On 23,000 acres of scrubby hills surrounding the Warasgaon dam’s backwaters, a Mumbai construction magnate dreams of building a city. [Financial Times]
Wine magnate Joe Corban’s teenage grandson has been charged with pointing a laser at a helicopter on Friday night. [New Zealand Herald]
Use of magnate peaked during the late-19th-century Gilded Age, and the word is still often used in relation to older technologies. But it’s not as weighed down by 19th-century baggage as its synonym tycoon.
