(plural only) Synonym of rich: the wealthy people of a society or of the world collectively.
... whether consumption patterns of the wealthy are more or less polluting than those of the poor depends on the contaminant in question.
The wealthy pay most of the taxes but the uberwealthy hardly pay any at all: they hold stock and property and live off debt borrowed against that collateral.
(uncommon, countable) A rich person.
F. Scott Fitzgerald never got over Ginevra King's dad reminding him he wasn't a wealthy and needed to aim lower.