Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Immoderate desire for wealth; cupidity.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. An inordinate desire of gaining and possessing wealth; covetousness; cupidity; greediness, or insatiable desire of gain.
- n. Synonyms Avarice, Covetousness, Cupidity, penuriousness, closeness, miserliness, all denote bad qualities, corruptions of the natural instinct of possession. Avarice, literally greediness, a strong desire to get objects of value, has become limited, except in figurative uses, so as to express only a sordid and mastering desire to get wealth. Covetousness and cupidity are not limited to wealth, but may have for their object anything that can be desired, cupidity being directed especially toward material things. Covetousness longs to possess that which belongs to another; hence the prohibition in the tenth commandment (Ex. xx. 17). Cupidity is more active than the others, less groveling, and more ready to snatch from others that which covetousness may wish for without trying to get. See penurious.
Wiktionary
- n. Excessive or inordinate desire of gain; greediness after wealth; covetousness; cupidity.
- n. Inordinate desire for some supposed good.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. An excessive or inordinate desire of gain; greediness for wealth; covetousness; cupidity.
- n. An inordinate desire for some supposed good.
WordNet 3.0
- n. reprehensible acquisitiveness; insatiable desire for wealth (personified as one of the deadly sins)
- n. extreme greed for material wealth
Etymologies
- From Old French, from Latin avāritia, from avārus ("greedy"). (Wiktionary)
- Middle English, from Old French, from Latin avāritia, from avārus, greedy, from avēre, to desire. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Zoretti was an Italian nobleman -- "one of those characters in whose bosom resides an unquenchable thirst of avarice" [ "_thirst_ of _avarice_" is good!], etc.”
“They say at the end “we hate expencive” the last year it was “avarice is wicked” or somethin like that translated. hope I could help”
“After all the horror stories about victims of insurane company abuse, the blatant display of avarice is contemptible and cruel.”
Think Progress » WellPoint CEO receives a 51 percent increase in compensation.
“Considering the Bible clearly states that total dedication to money, avarice, is the root of all evil, this means the world is serving and dedicated to an entity which is an anathema to the very nature of God.”
“Considering the Bible clearly states that total dedication to money, avarice, is the root of all evil, this means the world is serving, and dedicated to an entity, which is an anathema to the very nature of God.”
“Vanity, not avarice, is my ruling passion; and so long as young men write to me from America saying that they would rather part with their hair than with their copy of my book, I do not feel the need of food and drink.”
I’m with Wendy Cope when she says… : A.E. Stallings : Harriet the Blog : The Poetry Foundation
“Asiatic cholera had its origin in English avarice and cruelty, as they suppose who trace it to the tax which Warren Hastings, when”
Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry
“– I know not what was in his imagination, though certainly he took every opportunity of making very improper speeches to me; but detestable as I believe his morals are, his avarice is greater than any other of his odious passions; and this he found he might gratify, when the success of any other was uncertain; and therefore he affected to be as anxious as my aunt was, to remove me from Rayland Hall.”
“Hypocrisy I shall never justify or palliate; but I will dare to observe, that the odious vice of avarice is of all others most hastily arraigned, and most unmercifully condemned.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘avarice’.
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Test Prep or Just for fun
Building a list for standardized test prep or just for learning some new words! Please add any words that you feel are important for the SAT/GRE/GMAT etc...
throng, morass, parley, facile, kismet, strife, jetsam, carrion, annex, harbinger, vestige, surreptitious and 575 more...
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GRE Barron's 800
zealot, wistful, welter, wary, whimsical, warranted, vortex, vivisection, volatile, vitiate, viscous, visage and 787 more...
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GRE 2014
abate, abdicate, abase, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abjure, abortive, abound, abrasive, abreast, abridge and 1577 more...
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Words build meanings from origins( et...
These come from gamma meditation ,I think.
discursive, exogenous, machinations, purportedly, sumptuous, congruity, cantankerous, incongruous, festoon, hessian, ratiocinative, stratigraphic and 2046 more...
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GRE
predilection, explicit, appeal, supplication, appealing, enchanting, ovation, pertinent, apropos, opportunely, applicable, germane and 381 more...
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Daily Words
The words I come across on Daily basis that I feel Important to know
daily words, lackluster, mala fide, nepotism, avarice, polemics, fervor, ergo, precarious, reprieve, undefiled
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Shakespeare.05
vaulting, avarice, pristine, forswear, adage, summons, malice, commend, dismal, dwindle, gory, predominance and 2 more...
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man gre
abase, abeyance, abreast, abscission, abscond, abyss, accede, accretion, acerbic, acidulous, acumen, adulterate and 483 more...
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GRE
GRE words from Princeton Review guide, ETS GRE Book from 2010 (for revised test), New Yorker/NY Times articles.
sycophant, obsequious, volubility, equanimity, enervate, effrontery, impertinent, platitude, impudence, quiescent, propitiate, equivocate and 124 more...
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big book gre
abase, abbess, abbey, abbot, abdicate, abdomen, abdominal, abduction, abed, aberration, abet, abeyance and 6691 more...
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gre2
aberrant, aberration, aboveboard, abrasive, abstemious, acme, admonish, affable, affluent, alacrity, allegory, alleviate and 1908 more...
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Twitter favorites
The new favourite words of people on Twitter.
A script searches Twitter for "X is my new favorite word" and adds it to this list.
See also:
grabbable, retuiteando, leaving, fantastic, absolutely, kurwa, hella, ridic, underpass, hate, interlude, plush and 2369 more... -
GRE 3500
abase, abash, abate, aberrant, abeyance, abjure, ablution, abut, accede, accentuate, acerbity, acetic and 133 more...
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Words I Know
List of most of the words I've learned
garner, abase, abate, abdicate, abduct, aberration, abet, abhor, abide, abject, abjure, abnegation and 1046 more...
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Macbeth
ambivalence, prescient, omniscient, equivocation, soliloquy, discourse, antithesis, allusion, analogy, anthropomorphism, dramatic irony, juxtaposition and 18 more...
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Barron's 1100 words you need to know ...
avarice, bedlam, cacophony, compatible, disgruntled, equanimity, eradicate, exploit, impede, infallible, insatiable, irrational and 8 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for avarice.
oroboros aVarICE Apr 29, 2008