golden boy

noun

A young man who has become unusually successful at an early age.

“He was the golden boy of Montana politics.”

Similar
child prodigy
Ask AI about this wordChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

Meanings

noungolden boy (plural golden boys)

plural golden boys

  1. A young man who has become unusually successful at an early age.

    Bill Gates was the golden boy of the software industry in the early 1980s.

    1 more example

    On Friday, November 17, 2023, around noon Pacific time, Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, Silicon Valley’s golden boy, avatar of the generative AI revolution, logged on to a Google Meet to see four of his five board members staring at him.

    2025, Karen Hao, Empire of AI, New York City: Penguin Press, →ISBN
  2. A favored youth, held in high esteem by others, and for whom there are high hopes.

    He was the golden boy of Montana politics.

Synonyms & antonyms

Similar
child prodigy
Broader
golden child
Also see
blue-eyed boychild prodigywonderchildwunderkind
Cite this entry
APA

golden boy. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/golden%20boy

MLA

“golden boy.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/golden%20boy. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “golden boy,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/golden%20boy.

Source: golden boy on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.