Nearly monodisperse lanthanide-doped magnetite nanoparticles were obtained by thermally decomposing a mixture of Fe(acac)(3) and Ln(acac)(3) (acac = acetylacetonate; Ln = Sm, Eu, Gd) in the presence of passivating surfactants. Magnetic studies revealed room-temperature ferromagnetic behaviors of these doped nanoparticles, distinctly different from those of the undoped parent magnetite or the doped nanoparticles prepared by a coprecipitation method.