as in parvenus
one who has recently acquired wealth and social position
the town's old money immediately shunned these vulgar arrivistes, who may have had the cash but certainly not the class
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Recent Examples of arrivistes
And yet, the digital arrivistes could only gain so much traction with a broader customer base and needed a boost from tie-ins with old-school counterparts.
—
Brian Steinberg, Variety, 20 Apr. 2026
Certainly there’s a long and distinguished tradition of associating Jewish arrivistes with entrepreneurialism, avarice, and clannishness.
—Gideon Lewis-Kraus, New Yorker, 24 Nov. 2025
Brian Steinberg, Variety, 20 Apr. 2026
Certainly there’s a long and distinguished tradition of associating Jewish arrivistes with entrepreneurialism, avarice, and clannishness.
—Gideon Lewis-Kraus, New Yorker, 24 Nov. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for arrivistes
upstarts
Noun
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This October marks the festival’s inaugural run in Miami Beach, but the event is already poised to become a must-attend affair for everyone from independent creatives to brand executives, corporate gurus and scrappy upstarts.—
Caitlin White,
Variety,
29 Apr. 2026
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Sets from upstarts like Creepy Nuts, Pawsa, Geese and Slayyyter, along with emphatic crowds at rock heavyweights like Jack White, Turnstile and even Sombr, traded seamlessness and precision for immediacy and friction — louder, looser, more physical in ways that were best felt than watched.—
Andrea Domanick,
Los Angeles Times,
26 Apr. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Arrivistes.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/arrivistes. Accessed 4 May. 2026.
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