Forum: ell.stackexchange.com
Tags: <difference><adjectives><synonyms>
Title: Wealthy and Rich, what's the difference
Question: Is there any difference between someone being  wealthy  and someone being  rich ?  For instance, is Bill Gates  rich  or  wealthy ? Or maybe he is both. I don't get the subtle difference if any.

Answers:
sents: text: Wealthy and Rich are both synonymous in terms of money.
text: Both mean "having a great deal of money and assets".
text: So you can interchangebly use them to convey Bill Gates
text: is rich .
text: However, you can see rich has various usages other than abundance of money.
text: They can be found in the Oxford Dictionary hyperlink I have attached.
answer_details: author: ell.stackexchange.com/users/91/Mistu4u
score: 13
sents: text: There's also implications of social class in "Wealthy" that aren't as common with "Rich".
text: In other words: If you say that Bill Gates is rich, you are saying he has lots of money.
text: If you say that Bill Gates is wealthy, you are saying that he is rich, & that he grew up with lots of money.
text: A thesaurus at YourDictionary.com explains the difference as: rich is the general word for one who has more money, possessions, or income-producing property than is necessary to satisfy normal needs; wealthy adds to this connotation of grand living, influence in the community, a tradition of richness, etc.
text: William Safire, in a 1990 column , puts it as, "a rich family has to wait until its money ages before it becomes a wealthy family."
answer_details: author: ell.stackexchange.com/users/378/David Ross
score: 6
sents: text: In terms of money, rich is used to describe someone who has a certain amount of money/liquid capital (it's relative, however much money makes you 'rich' in my eyes, might not necessarily make you 'rich' in the eyes of Bill Gates).
text: Wealthy is also used in this way, however it is commonly used to describe someone who is beyond rich with just money alone (liquid cash, businesses, investments, etc) so to give an example, your favorite musician might be rich, but Bill Gates or Donald Trump would be considered wealthy.
answer_details: author: ell.stackexchange.com/users/349/MDMoore313
score: 4
sents: text: There is a big difference.
text: When I was younger
text: I thought they were the same, until Magic Johnson gave a interview.
text: He stated that there is a big difference between the two.
text: Even though I do not remember what he said word-for-word, I will always remember the gist of what he said.
text: To paraphrase: Wealthy is being able to provide for your family generations after your death (sustained money) and being rich is short-lived.
text: I am 33 years old
text: I have never forgotten that.
text: Me, personally, I want to be wealthy.
text: Please GOD I have been praying and LORD
text: I beg you make me wealthy, no matter what.
text: Amen
answer_details: author: ell.stackexchange.com/users/8691/Jason
score: 2
sents: text: There are some good answers here, but I'd like to point out yet another aspect.
text: Wealthy may suggest a person who has enough money for their needs.
text: At the same time, rich may connote someone who is demonstrating their money (sometimes, in an exaggerate way).
text: In this regard, I would say, Bill Gates, who's spending a lot of his earnings to charity, is wealthy , while the person from an image below is rich .
answer_details: author: ell.stackexchange.com/users/27/bytebuster
score: 1
sents: text: It is also worth noting that "wealthy" is a much politer way of saying that someone has a lot of money than "rich" is.
text: Often, this is a topic that should be talked about with some caution.
text: So for example: He is rich!
text: >
text: There is a slight air of disgust/jealousy perhaps; I am showing my opinion towards the fact that this person has a lot of money and it is slightly negative.
text: He is wealthy.
text: >
text: I am simply commenting on the fact that this person has a lot of money, without showing my opinion.
answer_details: author: ell.stackexchange.com/users/101831/books4languages.com
score: 0
sents: text: There is a difference between Switzerland without natural resources and Congo plenty of these resources (coper, titan..)
text: The first one is wealthy and the later is rich but poor
answer_details: author: ell.stackexchange.com/users/113359/Jean-Marie Mottoul
score: 0

Summary of the answers:
Wealthy implies being able to provide for your family generations after your death (sustained money) and being rich is short-lived.   "Wealthy" seems more polite and also has implications of social class that aren't as common with "Rich".  Wealthy  and  Rich  are both synonymous in terms of money. However, rich  may describe who flashes  their money, sometimes, in an exaggerated way.
Wealthy has class implications and is more polite. Rich suggests that someone is demonstrating their money.