Voracious

Definitions: Voracious

Voracious

Adjective

1. Excessively greedy and grasping; "a rapacious divorcee on the prowl"; "ravening creditors"; "paying taxes to voracious governments".

2. Devouring or craving food in great quantities; "edacious vultures"; "a rapacious appetite"; "ravenous as wolves"; "voracious sharks".

Date "voracious" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1258. (references)

Etymology: Voracious \Vo*ra"cious\, adjective. [Latin expression vorax, -acis, from vorare to devour; akin to Greek meat, food, to devour, Sanskrit gar. Compare to Devour.]. (Websters 1913)

Synonyms: Voracious

Synonyms: edacious (adj), esurient (adj), rapacious (adj), ravening (adj), ravenous (adj), wolfish (adj). (additional references)

Context	Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus).
Greed	Greedy as a hog; overeager; voracious; ravenous, ravenous as a wolf; openmouthed, extortionate, exacting, sordid, alieni appetens; insatiable, insatiate; unquenchable, quenchless; omnivorous.
Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus.

Crosswords: Voracious

English words defined with "voracious": Asilus ♦ Barracouata, barracuda, Bulimy ♦ Canine appetite, cormorant, Cormoraut, crocodile, Cynorexia ♦ eel, Esox lucius ♦ Gormand, Gormandizer ♦ Hawk fly ♦ Lamna nasus ♦ moray, moray eel ♦ northern pike ♦ Palmerworm, pancake turtle, Phalacrocorax carbo, Piraya, porbeagle ♦ rapacious, ravening ♦ snapping turtle, soft-shelled turtle ♦ thresher shark ♦ voraciously ♦ Wolf fish. (references)

Specialty definitions using "voracious": GREEDY GUTS ♦ LONG STOMACH ♦ Sharks. (references)

Etymologies containing "voracious": Omnivorous. (references)

Domain	Usage
Screenplays	They were sweet-smelling, coy, cunning, voluptuous, voracious, delicious, pernicious, vexing and sexingthese earth sister rebel mothersthese arousers and carousers. (Designing Women; writing credit: Poul Thomsen)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Domain	Title
Books	LA Mamama/Mamama: UN Amor Voraz/a Voracious Love (reference) Sharks: Voracious Hunters of the Sea (Secrets of the Animal World) (reference) Voracious Idols and Violent Hands : Iconoclasm in Reformation Zurich, Strasbourg, and Basel (reference) (more book examples)

Music	Voracious Contempt (reference) Voracious Contempt [IMPORT] (reference) (more classical music examples; more popular music examples)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Thumbnail	Description & Credit
	A tagged lizard-fish of Synodontidae family on sandy cobble bottom. These fish are voracious predators.Credit: The Coral Kingdom.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Title	Author	Quote
Les Miserables	Hugo, Victor	They are voracious as beasts, that is to say ferocious, not like the tyrant, but like the tiger.
Walden	Thoreau, Henry David	The voracious caterpillar when transformed into a butterfly.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Subject	Topic	Quote
Health		A lack of vasopressin can cause a great thirst, excess urination, voracious appetite accompanied by emaciation, loss of strength, and fainting. (references)
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits.

"Voracious" is generally used as an adjective (general or positive) -- approximately 98.80% of the time. "Voracious" is used about 83 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)	98.8%	82	36,594
Noun (proper)	1.2%	1	339,140
Total	100.00%	83	N/A

Expressions using "voracious": voracious appetite ♦ voracious whirlpool. 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.

Language		Translations for "voracious"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses.
Albanian		nepsqar (greedy, leer, prurient), makut (Edacious, esurient, gluttonous, grasping, greedy, mingy, miser, open mouthed, pecker, piggish, rapacious), llupës (glutton, gluttonous, gourmand, greedy, guttler, guzzler), i pangopur (gluttonous, insatiable, insatiate, piggish, rapacious, ravenous, sateless), i etur (agog, dry, eager, keen, parched, rapacious, ravenous, solicitous, thirsty, wistful), grykës (gluttonous, greedy, guttural). (various references)

Arabic		‏مفترس (predacious, predatory, rapacious, ravenous), ‏نهم (avid, cormorant, gluttonous, gluttony, gourmand, insatiable, insatiate, lickerish, open mouthed, pig, piggy, ravenous, straggling, voracity), ‏شره (avid, avidity, cormorant, gluttonous, gourmand, greed, greedy, gross, hoggish, lickerish, pig, piggish, predatory, solicitous, voracity). (various references)

Bulgarian		ненаситен (avid, covetous, craving, grasping, greedy, insatiable, insatiate, ravenous, sateless, slakeless), лаком (avid, esurient, gourmand, grasping, greedy, gutsy, hoggish, lickerish, openmouthed, piggish, ravenous), изгладнял (famished, hard set). (various references)

Chinese		难满足. (various references)

Czech		neukojitelný (insatiable), nenasytný (gluttonous, greedy, insatiable, insatiate, sateless), hltavý (gluttonous, greedy, omnivorous, ravenous, wolfish), žravý (gluttonous, omnivorous, ravenous). (various references)

Danish		grådig. (various references)

Dutch		vraatzuchtig. (various references)

Farsi		پرولع (Ravenous), پرخور (Gobbler, Greedy), حریص (Avaricious, Avid, Fierce, Greedy, Hungry, Perfervid, Vulture), سبع (Atrocious, Brute, Ferocious, Fierce, Murderous, Savage, Truculent, Wroth), خیلی گرسنه . (various references)

Finnish		saalistava, predaattori (predator). (various references)

French		vorace. (various references)

German		gefräßig (gluttonous, gluttonously, greedy, gutsy, piggish, ravening, ravenous, ravenously). (various references)

Greek		άπληστοσ (acquisitive, avid, cormorant, covetous, greedy, insatiable, rapacious), αρπακτικός (predatory), αχόρταγοσ (greedy, insatiable), αδηφάγοσ (glutton, ravenous, surfeiter). (various references)

Hebrew		זולל� י (gluttonous, ravenous), רעבת� י (avid, gluttonous, greedy, hungry, ravenous). (various references)

Hungarian		telhetetlen (grasping, insatiable, insatiate, rapacious). (various references)

Indonesian		lahap (gluttonous, ravenous). (various references)

Italian		vorace (greedy, gutsy, ravenous). (various references)

Korean		탐욕스러운 (Avid, Covetous). (various references)

Manx		jollyssagh (avid, greedy, immoderate, insatiable, rapacious), jioogh (avid, gluttonous, greedy, insatiable). (various references)

Pig Latin		oraciousvay

Portuguese		voraz (cormorant, edacity, gluttony, gourmet, greedy, lickerish, rapacious, ravenous). (various references)

Romanian		vorace (ravenous), lacom (avid, covetous, craving, devouringly, edacious, esurient, glutton, gluttonous, greedy, hoggish, hungry, insatiable, lickerish, open mouthed, piggish, rapacious, ravenous, wishful, wolfish). (various references)

Russian		жадный (avaricious, avid, covetous, edacious, esurient, glutton, grasping, greedy, hoggish, insatiable, large-handed, locust, mingy, open mouthed, piggish, rapacious, ravenous, sharp-set), прожорливый (edacious, gluttonous, greedy, rapacious). (various references)

Serbo-Croatian		proždrljiv (edacious, glutton, gluttonous, lupine, ravenous), halapljiv (esurient, hoggish, ravenous, sharp-set), alav (gluttonous). (various references)

Spanish		voraz (edacious, esurient, ravenous). (various references)

Swedish		glupsk (avid, edacious, glutenous, gluttonous, greedy, open mouthed, piggish, piggy, ravenous). (various references)

Turkish		obur (cormorant, edacious, esurient, glutton, gluttonous, gormandizer, gourmand, greedy, guzzler, hog, lickerish, open mouthed, piggish, ravenous), istekli (agog, ambitious, anxious, applicant, aspirant, athirst for, cheerful, covetous, dead set, desirous, devout, disposed, eager, enthusiastic, forward, full of zeal, hellbent, inclinable, inclined, intense, intent, itching, itchy, keen, minded, ready, solicitous, strong, thirsty, willing, wishful, wistful), hırslı (ambitious, angry, avid, competitive, covetous, greedy, greedy for, high-flying, impassioned, passionate, uptight), açgözlü (acquisitive, avid, covetous, esurient, grabber, grasping, greedy, hoggish, insatiable, open mouthed, piggish, piglike, rapacious, ravenous, vulturine, vulturous, wolfish). (various references)

Ukranian		ненажерливий (edacious, gluttonous, gourmand, greedy, ravenous, wide-mouthed). (various references)

Vietnamese		tham ăn (gluttonous, greedy), ph� m ăn; ngấu nghiến. (various references)

Welsh		gwancus (greedy), bwyteig (greedy), barus (greedy). (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references.

Language	Period	Translations
Latin	500 BCE-Modern	vorax. (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Derivations
	Words beginning with "voracious": voraciously, voraciousness, voraciousnesses. (additional references)
Misspellings
	"Voracious" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: varacious, vkracious, vocacious, vocarious, voracioous, voracios, voracoias, vorascious, voraucious. (additional references)
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references).

# of Phoneme Matches	Pronunciation	Word(s) rhyming with "voracious" (pronounced vôrā"shus)
5	-r ā" sh u s	gracious.
4	-ā" sh u s	audacious, capacious, efficacious, fallacious, flirtatious, hellacious, herbaceous, loquacious, ostentatious, predaceous, salacious, sebaceous, spacious, tenacious, vexatious, vivacious.
3	-sh u s	ambitious, anxious, atrocious, auspicious, capricious, cautious, conscientious, conscious, contentious, delicious, expeditious, facetious, factitious, ferocious, fictitious, fractious, inauspicious, infectious, injudicious, judicious, luscious, malicious, nauseous, noxious, nutritious, obnoxious, overambitious, pernicious, precious, precocious, pretentious, propitious, pugnacious, rambunctious, rapacious, repetitious, seditious, semiprecious, specious, subconscious, superstitious, surreptitious, suspicious, tendentious, unconscious, unpretentious, vicious.
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits.

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams
	Words within the letters "a-c-i-o-o-r-s-u-v"
	-2 letters: carious, curiosa, saviour, various.
	-3 letters: arioso, curios, ovisac, savior, savour, scoria, souari, soucar, vicars.
	-4 letters: arcus, arvos, auric, auris, aviso, coirs, coria, curia, curio, orcas, savor, scaur, scour, vairs, varus, vicar, virus, visor.
	-5 letters: airs, arco, arcs, arvo, asci, avos, cars, ciao, coir, coos, cors, cris, crus, curs, oars, ocas, orca, orcs, osar, ours.
	Words containing the letters "a-c-i-o-o-r-s-u-v"
	+2 letters: carnivorous, voraciously.
	+3 letters: equivocators, oncornavirus, overcautions, overcautious.
	+4 letters: carnivorously, cavernicolous, convulsionary, voraciousness.
	+5 letters: oncornaviruses, overeducations.
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.