Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Avaricious |
AvariciousAdjective1. Immoderately desirous of acquiring e.g. wealth; "they are avaricious and will do anything for money"; "casting covetous eyes on his neighbor's fields"; "a grasping old miser"; "grasping commercialism"; "greedy for money and power"; "grew richer and greedier"; "prehensile employers stingy with raises for their employees". Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "avaricious" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1258. (references) |
Etymology: Avaricious \Av`a*ri"cious\, adjective. [Compare to the French expression avaricieux.]. (references) |
Synonyms: AvariciousSynonyms: covetous (adj), grabby (adj), grasping (adj), greedy (adj), prehensile (adj). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Gluttony | Avaricious; selfish. |
Greed | Adjective: greedy, avaricious, covetous, acquisitive, grasping; rapacious; lickerish. |
Parsimony | Adjective: parsimonious, penurious, stingy, miserly, mean, shabby, peddling, scrubby, penny wise, near, close; fast handed, close handed, strait handed; close fisted, hard fisted, tight fisted; tight, sparing; chary; grudging, griping; Verb: illiberal, ungenerous, churlish, hidebound, sordid, mercenary, venal, covetous, usurious, avaricious, greedy, extortionate, rapacious. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Avaricious |
| English words defined with "avaricious": Avarous ♦ covetous ♦ Fast-handed ♦ grabby, grasping, greedy ♦ prehensile ♦ sordid. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "avaricious": SKIN FLINT. (references) |
| Etymologies containing "avaricious": miser. (references) |
| Domain | Title |
Books | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Author | Quotation |
Charles C. Colton | Cruel men are the greatest lovers of mercy, avaricious men of generosity, and proud men of humility; that is to say in others, not in themselves. |
Voltaire | Men hate the individual whom they call avaricious only because nothing can be gained from him. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | |
| "Avaricious" is generally used as an adjective (general or positive) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "Avaricious" is used about 35 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Adjective (general or positive) | 100% | 35 | 58,339 |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expression using "avaricious": avaricious person. Additional references. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day |
avaricious | 2 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "avaricious"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Albanian | koprrac (cheese paring, churl, clam, close-fisted, curmudgeon, curmudgeonly, grasping, griping, mean, mingy, miser, money grubber, money-grubbing, muckworm, narrow, near, rapacious, saving, screwy, scrimp, sharpener, skin, skinflint, stingy, tight-fisted, tightwad, turn-penny), dorështrënguar (careful, close-fisted, grasping, large handed, mean, mingy, miserly, muckworm, parsimonious, penny-pinching, penurious, rapacious, saving, scrimp, skinflint, snippy, tight, tight-fisted). (various references) | |
Arabic | محب لإكتساب المال و إختزانه, جشع (an itching palm, avarice, avidity, cupidity, grasping, greed, greedy, mercenary, predatory, rapacious, rapacity, ravening), بخيل (cheeseparing, mean, miserly, shy, skimpy, skinflint, spare, sparing, stingy, tight, tight-fisted). (various references) | |
Bulgarian | скъпернически (covetous, mean, mingy, miser, miserly, penurious, shabby, stingy), свидлив (churlish, close-fisted, costive, hardfisted, illiberal, miserly, narrow, parsimonious, saving, skinny, tight, tight-fisted, ungenerous). (various references) | |
Chinese | 爱财, 婪 . (various references) | |
Czech | lakomý (grasping, mean, miserly, parsimonious, stingy, tightfisted), hrabivý (grasping, greedy, mercenary, rapacious), chamtivý (covetous, grasping, greedy, rapacious). (various references) | |
Danish | gerrig (miserly, stingy). (various references) | |
Dutch | pinnig (miserly, stingy), inhalig (miserly, stingy), hebzuchtig (acquisitive, greedy, miserly, stingy), gierig (miserly, stingy). (various references) | |
Esperanto | avara (miserly, stingy). (various references) | |
Faeroese | gírigur (miserly, stingy). (various references) | |
Farsi | حریص (Avid, Fierce, Greedy, Hungry, Perfervid, Voracious, Vulture), زیاده جو, طماع (Greedy), ازمند (Avid, Cormorant, Covetous, Greedy). (various references) | |
Finnish | saita (mean, miserly, stingy, tight-fisted). (various references) | |
French | avare. (various references) | |
Frisian | taaimelk (miserly, stingy), gjirrich (miserly, stingy), earnich (miserly, stingy). (various references) | |
German | habgierig (acquisitive, eager, grasping, graspingly, greedily, greedy, possessive, rapacious), geizig (avariciously, costive, illiberal, mean, miserly, parsimonious, parsimoniously, penurious, penuriously, stingily, stingy, thrifty, tight-fisted). (various references) | |
Greek | φιλάργυροσ (illiberal, miser, miserly, muckworm, parsimonious, penurious, skinflint, sordid, stingy, ungenerous), φιλάργυρος (miser, miserly). (various references) | |
Hebrew | או"ב בצע, כילי (greedy, mean, miserly). (various references) | |
Hungarian | fösvény (churlish, curmudgeon, hunks, miser, miserly, money grubber, near, parsimonious, pelting, penurious, shabby, skinflint, stingy, tightwad), zsugori (churlish, costive, curmudgeon, fisty, mingy, miser, miserly, parsimonious, pinching, screw, screwy, shabby, skinflint, sordid, stingy, thrifty, tightwad, to flay a flint), kapzsi (acquisitive, avariciously, avid, covetous, eager for gain, extortionate, grasping, greedy, have an itching palm, rapacious). (various references) | |
Indonesian | serakah (gluttonous), loba (greedy), kikir (avarice, closefisted, file, skinny). (various references) | |
Italian | avaro (close, grasping, greedy, hard-fisted, mean, mingy, miser, miserly, near, penurious, skinflint, stingy, tight, tightfisted, tightwad). (various references) | |
Manx | sondagh (close-fisted, covetous, greedy, miser, selfish, sordid), sayntagh (acquisitive, covetous, grasping, hungry as eye; too deep, hungry; too deep, lustful). (various references) | |
Pig Latin | avariciousay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | avaro (covetous, mean, miser, miserly, narrow-fisted, stingy, tight, tight-fisted). (various references) | |
Romanian | avar (accumulative, churl, churlish, close, close-fisted, grasping, miser, miserly, money grubber, muckworm, penurious, screw, stingy), zgârcit (accumulator, cheese paring, churlish, clenched, close, close-fisted, close-handed, costive, covetous, curmudgeon, grasping, hunks, illiberal, iron-fisted, mean, miser, miserly, money grubber, muckworm, parsimonious, penny father, penny-wise, penurious, screw, skimpy, skin, skinflint, sparing, stingy, tight), cupid. (various references) | |
Russian | алчный (acquisitive, avid, covetous, eager, greedy). (various references) | |
Scottish | sgonsair (an avaricious rascal). (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | pohlepan (greedy, lickerish, rapacious, sharp-set), škrt (chary, close-fisted, grudging, hardfisted, mean, miser, miserly, parsimonious, penurious, scanty, scotch, scrimp, scrimpy, skimpy, stingy, tight, tightfisted, tight-fisted). (various references) | |
Spanish | avaro (close-fisted, grasper, grasping, grudging, miser, miserly, money grubber, money-grubbing, parsimonious, penurious, scrimpy, tight-fisted, tightwad), codicioso (acquisitive, covetous, eager, greedy, mammonish). (various references) | |
Swedish | girig (avid, covetous, grabby, grasping, greedy, miserly, moneygrubbing, sordid, stingy). (various references) | |
Thai | โล (rapacious). (various references) | |
Turkish | tamahkâr (greedy, miserly), paragöz (acquisitive, mercenary, miser, money grubber, stingy), para canlısı (sordid). (various references) | |
Ukrainian | корисливий (accumulative, appropriate, gainful, interested, mammonish, mercenary, money-grubbing, moneymaking, self-interested, self-seeking, sordid), зажерливий (covetous), жадібний (acquisitive, avid, covetous, edacious, esurient, grasping, greedy, open mouthed, piggish, rapacious). (various references) | |
Vietnamese | tham lam (devouringly, graspingly), hám lợi. (various references) | |
Welsh | arian.gar (fond of money), cybyddlyd (miserly). (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Latin | 500 BCE-Modern | avarus. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "avaricious": avariciously, avariciousness, avariciousnesses. (additional references) | |
| |
"Avaricious" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: avaracious, avarcious, avariciou, avariciuos, avaricius, avariclous, avaricous, avericious. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| Words rhyming with "avaricious" (pronounced 'Av`a*ri"cious'): Artificious, Astucious, Atrocious, Audacious, Auspicious, Autoecious, Bibacious, Capacious, Capricious, Cilicious, Contumacious, Convicious, Delicious, fugacious, Fumacious, Furacious, Glacious, gracious, heteroecious, inauspicious, inefficacious, injudicious, judicious, Linguacious, loquacious, luscious, Malgracious, malicious, mendacious, Meracious, meretricious, minacious, Misgracious, monoecious, mordacious, Multiplicious, Multiscious, Obstetricious, Officious, Omniscious, Overluscious, Overofficious, Palacious, Perspicacious, Pertinacious, Pervicacious, Petrosilicious, Phenicious, Phoenicious, Precocious. (additional references) |
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-a-c-i-i-o-r-s-u-v" | |
-1 letter: vicarious. | |
-3 letters: carious, caviars, curiosa, saviour, various, vicious. | |
-4 letters: acarus, ariosi, caviar, curios, ovisac, savior, savour, scoria, souari, soucar, vicars. | |
-5 letters: acari, arcus, arias, arvos, auras, auric, auris, aviso, coirs, coria, curia, curio, orcas, raias, sacra, savor, scaur, scour, vacua, vairs, varas, varia, varus, vicar, virus, visor. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-a-c-i-i-o-r-s-u-v" | |
+2 letters: avariciously. | |
+4 letters: avariciousness. | |
+5 letters: vascularization. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Commercial | 5. Quotations: Familiar 6. Usage Frequency 7. Expressions 8. Expressions: Internet | 9. Translations: Modern 10. Translations: Ancient 11. Derivations 12. Rhymes | 13. Anagrams 14. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
