Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Filled with or motivated by zeal; fervent.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Full of or incited by zeal; jealous for the good or the promotion of some person or object; ardent; eager; fervent; devoted.
- Caused by or manifesting zeal; due to earnest devotion; of an ardent character or quality.
- Synonyms Forward, enthusiastic, fervid, keen. See zeal.
Wiktionary
- adj. Full of zeal; ardent, fervent; exhibiting enthusiasm or strong passion.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Filled with, or characterized by, zeal; warmly engaged, or ardent, in behalf of an object.
- adj. obsolete Filled with religious zeal.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. marked by active interest and enthusiasm
Etymologies
- From Ancient Greek ζήλος (zēlos, "zeal, jealousy"), from ζηλόω (zēloō, "to emulate, to be jealous"). (Wiktionary)
Examples
“Tonight, 12 House Republican congressmen outraged by what they call the zealous and unjust sentences, they've sent a letter to President Bush.”
“Yet in this work he can find no words sufficiently strong to praise what he calls the zealous freedom and Christian earnestness of one of the most offensive canters that the whole range of fiction presents.”
“When he came nearest to the scientific spirit of his time, in zealous observations of the life of nature, he characteristically concentrated on the sequence of various bird notes at daybreak and the flight of moths as the stars of twilight were kindled.”
“I respectfully suggest that "cult like behavior" is defined as zealous advocacy that leads to magical thinking and imperviousness to fact, you simply cannot beat a Hillary true-believer.”
“In addition to his witness to the faith under persecution which encouraged the young to persevere, Fr Jia was known as a zealous and devout pastoral priest.”
“I don't know many lawyers in the bankruptcy practice who take the idea of zealous representation of their client as seriously as he does," says Richard Chesley, a Chicago bankruptcy lawyer who has worked with Mr. Lauria on a couple of cases.”
The Wall Street Journal: Lawyer Who Slowed Chrysler Deal May Take On GM
“As for the claim that they had been over-zealous, that is just rubbish.”
“The legal profession has taken the notion of zealous representation to mean whatever the client wants.”
“He was known as a zealous puritan, and had given his sister in marriage to the celebrated Edmund Cartwright the leader of the sect.”
“-- Why Jehovah in the Word is called zealous, 366.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘zealous’.
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1100
abound, technology, branch of knowled..., prognosticate, automaton, matron, an older married ..., realm, special field of ..., kingdom, annals, historical records and 981 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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POL - campaign tokenisms
Positive words and vague promises. THE words and expressions to use when you want to win over the masses or just don't know what to say.
"CAPITAL" stands for the administrative capital...grow, greatest country, greatest, grow the economy, great nation, great decisions, great, government, great NATIONAL su..., good times, good job, good and generous... and 751 more...
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ze list
favorites, of all sorts
obscure, pretentious, debacle, vintage, ostentatious, damsel, plethora, requiem, memoir, loathe, lackadaisical, misanthropic and 82 more...
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Here and Now
Words related to the mental state of "being in the present in the moment".
improvisation, nolens volens, extempore, autoschediastic, in medias res, willy-nilly, egersis, immanence, nunc pro tunc, spontaneity, observant, concentration and 55 more...
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GRE 1100
drudgery, implore, hapless, nuance, wrest, incipient, inadvertent, tremulous, bristle, euphemism, disdain, pugnacious and 346 more...
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Wicked Cool Words
These words have been posted on my vocabulary tumblr, wickedcoolwords.tumblr.com!
miasma, libation, laconic, denigrating, deontic, accinge, liquescent, quagmire, exiguous, dirigible, lambasted, lambaste and 89 more...
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GRE list #4
runic, sagacious, salacious, salient, salutary, sanctimony, sanguine, satiate, saturnine, seine, seminal, sidereal and 103 more...
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Hit Parade GRE
Princeton Review words
abscond, aberrant, alacrity, anomaly, approbation, arduous, assuage, audacious, austere, axiomatic, canonical, capricious and 287 more...
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1100 words you need to know
GRE words
voracious, indiscriminate, replete, steeped, eminent, perceive, intrepid, compound, automaton, reticent, interminable, drudgery and 288 more...
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Twitter favourites
The new favourite words of people on Twitter.
A script searches Twitter for "X is my new favourite word" and adds it to this list.
See also:
bumwank, calamity, recalcitrant, gayenese, jeeze, nonsense, flabbergasted, juxtapose, procrastinating, ossanity, biffing, loser and 1972 more... -
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... -
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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Personal Vocabulary List
All my favourite words that I come across!
veritable, incongruence, rigamorole, letcherous, revolting, repulsive, reputrid, rapatious, forays, guise, placate, paradigm and 1162 more...
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exlotuseater's Words
autocthonous, anacoluthon, benthic, bactrian, caryatid, chiastic, dryad, dromedary, effulgent, elixir, fricative, fungible and 145 more...
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Revised GRE Wordlist_2013
Vocabulary building for my quest of GRE 2013
ephemeral, esoteric, rhetoric, censure, egregious, pittance, dupe, mulct, paucity, alacrity, maintain, laconic and 997 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for zealous.
brtom Zelo zelatus sum pro Domino Deo exercituum
Vulgate, 1 Kings 19:14 Dec 18, 2006