lothario
noun
-ˈthär-
Did you know?
Lothario comes from The Fair Penitent (1703), a tragedy by Nicholas Rowe. In the play, Lothario is a notorious seducer, extremely attractive but a haughty and unfeeling scoundrel beneath his charming exterior. He seduces Calista, an unfaithful wife and later the fair penitent of the title. After the play was published, the character of Lothario became a stock figure in English literature. For example, Samuel Richardson modeled the character of Lovelace on Lothario in his 1748 novel Clarissa. As the character became well known, his name became progressively more generic, and lothario (often capitalized) has since been used to describe a foppish, unscrupulous rake.
Examples of lothario in a Sentence
Peter Tonguette, The Washington Examiner, 13 Mar. 2026
Or where LaKeith Stanfield, as an elusive local lothario, uses his legend-has-it oral sex skills to literally suck the souls out of women.
—Ryan Lattanzio, IndieWire, 12 Mar. 2026
By the time Annie Hall came out, Keaton was already in a relationship with the legendary lothario Warren Beatty.
—Hadley Hall Meares, Vanity Fair, 26 Dec. 2025
In a Cinderella-esque twist, that woman is actually a maid named Sophie, who is right under the same roof as our lovestruck lothario.
—Jillian Sederholm, Entertainment Weekly, 25 Dec. 2025
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Cite this Entry
“Lothario.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/lothario. Accessed 21 Mar. 2026.
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