Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Rapacious |
RapaciousAdjective1. Living by preying on other animals especially by catching living prey; "a predatory bird"; "the rapacious wolf"; "raptorial birds"; "ravening wolves"; "a vulturine taste for offal". 2. Excessively greedy and grasping; "a rapacious divorcee on the prowl"; "ravening creditors"; "paying taxes to voracious governments". 3. Devouring or craving food in great quantities; "edacious vultures"; "a rapacious appetite"; "ravenous as wolves"; "voracious sharks". Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "rapacious" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1321. (references) |
Etymology: Rapacious \Rapa"cious\, adjective. [Latin expression rapax, -acis, from rapere to seize and carry off, to snatch away. See Rapid.]. (references) |
Synonyms: RapaciousSynonyms: edacious (adj), esurient (adj), predatory (adj), raptorial (adj), ravening (adj), ravenous (adj), voracious (adj), vulturine (adj), vulturous (adj), wolfish (adj). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
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. |
Stealing | Adjective: thieving; Verb: thievish, light-fingered; furacious, furtive; piratical; predaceous, predal, predatory, predatorial; raptorial; (rapacious). |
Taking | Adjective: taking;Verb: privative, prehensile; predaceous, predal, predatory, predatorial; lupine, rapacious, raptorial; ravenous; parasitic. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Rapacious |
| English words defined with "rapacious": Accipitres ♦ beast, brute ♦ edacious, esurient ♦ frigate bird ♦ jaeger ♦ Large-handed ♦ predatory ♦ rapaciously, raptorial, ravening, ravenous ♦ savage, Spoilful ♦ voracious, vulturine, vulturous ♦ Water devil, wildcat, wolf, wolfish. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "rapacious": Rinaldo ♦ Thick clay. (references) |
| Etymologies containing "rapacious": rapacity. (references) |
| "Rapacious" is generally used as an adjective (general or positive) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "Rapacious" is used about 49 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% | 49 | 48,677 |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expressions using "rapacious": predatory rapacious raptorial ravening vulturine vulturous ♦ rapacious carp. Additional references. | |
| Hypenated Usage | |
Ending with "rapacious": memory-rapacious. | |
| 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 |
rapacious | 3 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "rapacious"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Albanian | makut (Edacious, esurient, gluttonous, grasping, greedy, mingy, miser, open mouthed, pecker, piggish, voracious), koprrac (avaricious, cheese paring, churl, clam, close-fisted, curmudgeon, curmudgeonly, grasping, griping, mean, mingy, miser, money grubber, money-grubbing, muckworm, narrow, near, saving, screwy, scrimp, sharpener, skin, skinflint, stingy, tight-fisted, tightwad, turn-penny), i pangopur (gluttonous, insatiable, insatiate, piggish, ravenous, sateless, voracious), i etur (agog, dry, eager, keen, parched, ravenous, solicitous, thirsty, voracious, wistful), grabitqar (predacious, predator, predatory, raptorial, ravenous, vulture, wolfish), dorështrënguar (avaricious, careful, close-fisted, grasping, large handed, mean, mingy, miserly, muckworm, parsimonious, penny-pinching, penurious, saving, scrimp, skinflint, snippy, tight, tight-fisted). (various references) | |
Arabic | كاسر (breaker, predatory), مفترس (predacious, predatory, ravenous, voracious), نهاب (predatory), سلاب نهاب, طماع (avid, grasping, greedy, kidnapper, predatory, pushing, ravening), ضار (detrimental, felled, ferocious, fierce, hurtful, impish, injurious, malign, malignant, noisome, noxious, pernicious, pest, poisonous, predatory, prejudicial, rabid, ravenous, savage, set, sharp, truculent, unhealthy, unwholesome, vicious), جشع (an itching palm, avarice, avaricious, avidity, cupidity, grasping, greed, greedy, mercenary, predatory, rapacity, ravening). (various references) | |
Bulgarian | хищен (accipitrine, covetous, predacious, predatory, raptorial, vulturous), граблив (predacious, predatory, raptorial), грабителски (extortionate, predacious, predatory, ravenous), алчен (accumulative, acquisitive, avid, covetous, eager, gloating, grasping, having, miserly, moneygrubbing, sordid). (various references) | |
Chinese | 贪婪 (Acquisitive, Acquisitiveness, Avarice, Covetous, grabby, greed, greedy). (various references) | |
Czech | hrabivý (avaricious, grasping, greedy, mercenary), dravý (ferocious, fierce, predacious, predatory, rapid), chamtivý (avaricious, covetous, grasping, greedy). (various references) | |
Farsi | ژیان (Fierce), درنده خو. (various references) | |
Finnish | raateleva (predatory), saaliinhimoinen (voracious). (various references) | |
French | rapace (ravening, ravenous), avide. (various references) | |
German | Raubgierig (rapaciously). (various references) | |
Greek | άπληστοσ (acquisitive, avid, cormorant, covetous, greedy, insatiable, voracious), άπληστος (acquisitive, greedy, voracious), αρπακτικόσ (curmudgeon, grasping, predaceous, predacious, predatory, raptorial, ravening, ravenous, ravishing, vulturous). (various references) | |
Hebrew | מרעב, עושק (exploitation, extortion, oppression, robbery, violence), חמס י (predatory, violent), טורף (predacious, predator). (various references) | |
Hungarian | telhetetlen (grasping, insatiable, insatiate, voracious), kapzsi (acquisitive, avaricious, avariciously, avid, covetous, eager for gain, extortionate, grasping, greedy, have an itching palm). (various references) | |
Indonesian | tamak (acquisitive, avarice, grasping, greedy). (various references) | |
Italian | rapace (greedy, predaceous, predatory). (various references) | |
Manx | oaldey (predatory, savage, uncivilized, wild, wild as animal, wolfish), jollyssagh (avid, greedy, immoderate, insatiable, voracious). (various references) | |
Pig Latin | apaciousray.(various references) | |
Portuguese | rapinante (predacious), voraz (cormorant, edacious, gluttonous, gourmand, greedy, lickerish, ravenous), predatório (predatory), ganancioso (acquisitive, grasping, greedy), ávido (acquisitive, appropriative, athirst, avid, eager, edacious, greedy, jejune, lickerish, ravenous, wishful, wistful). (various references) | |
Romanian | rapace, rãpitor (charming, grasping, predacious, predatory, rapturous, ravishing), spoliator (despoiler, predatory), lacom (avid, covetous, craving, devouringly, edacious, esurient, glutton, gluttonous, greedy, hoggish, hungry, insatiable, lickerish, open mouthed, piggish, ravenous, voracious, wishful, wolfish), avid (avid, eager, greedily, greedy, insatiable), arghirofil (Cupid, grasping, lover of money, money grubber, usurer). (various references) | |
Russian | хищный (predacious, predatory, raptorial, ravenous, vulturish, vulturous), грабительский (burglarious, extortionate, predatory, ravenous), ненасытный (gluttonous, insatiable, insatiate, sateless, voracious), захватнический (invasive), жадный (avaricious, avid, covetous, edacious, esurient, glutton, grasping, greedy, hoggish, insatiable, large-handed, locust, mingy, open mouthed, piggish, ravenous, sharp-set, voracious), прожорливый (edacious, gluttonous, greedy, voracious). (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | pohlepan (avaricious, greedy, lickerish, sharp-set), gramziv (acquisitive, covetous), grabljiv (grasping, predacious, predatory, ravenous, vulturous). (various references) | |
Spanish | rapaz (lad, laddie, nipper, predaceous, predacious, predatory). (various references) | |
Swedish | rovgirig (edacious, predacious, ravenous). (various references) | |
Thai | แย่งชิง (scramble, spoil), โล (avaricious), ชั่วร้าย (black, egregious, evil, fiendish, hellish, sinful). (various references) | |
Turkish | zorba (autocratic, autocratical, bully, despot, extortioner, extortionist, high handed, imperious, overbearing, persecutor, procrustean, ravisher, rowdy, ruffian), yırtıcı (ferocious, predaceous, predacious, predatory, raptorial, ravenous, ripper, savage), hasis (costive, hard-fisted, mean, parsimonious, Scrooge, spare, stingy, vile), gözü doymaz, açgözlü (acquisitive, avid, covetous, esurient, grabber, grasping, greedy, hoggish, insatiable, open mouthed, piggish, piglike, ravenous, voracious, vulturine, vulturous, wolfish). (various references) | |
Ukrainian | хижий (predacious, predatory, ravenous, sharking, vulturous), загарбницький (invasive), жадібний (acquisitive, avaricious, avid, covetous, edacious, esurient, grasping, greedy, open mouthed, piggish). (various references) | |
Vietnamese | tham t n tham ăn, tham lạm, ph m ăn (gluttonous). (various references) | |
Welsh | rheibus (of prey), ysglyfaethus (of prey). (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Latin | 500 BCE-Modern | rapaces, rapax. (various references) |
| Old French | 900-1400 | ravinos. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "rapacious": rapaciously, rapaciousness, rapaciousnesses. (additional references) | |
| |
"Rapacious" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: radacious, rapacios, rapaciuos, rapatious, rapcaious, repacious. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "rapacious" (pronounced rupa"shus) |
| 4 | -a" sh u s | pugnacious. |
| 3 | -sh u s | ambitious, anxious, atrocious, audacious, auspicious, capacious, capricious, cautious, conscientious, conscious, contentious, delicious, efficacious, expeditious, facetious, factitious, fallacious, ferocious, fictitious, flirtatious, fractious, gracious, hellacious, herbaceous, inauspicious, infectious, injudicious, judicious, loquacious, luscious, malicious, nauseous, noxious, nutritious, obnoxious, ostentatious, overambitious, pernicious, precious, precocious, predaceous, pretentious, propitious, rambunctious, repetitious, salacious, sebaceous, seditious, semiprecious, spacious, specious, subconscious, superstitious, surreptitious, suspicious, tenacious, tendentious, unconscious, unpretentious, vexatious, vicious, vivacious, voracious. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-a-c-i-o-p-r-s-u" | |
-1 letter: acarpous. | |
-2 letters: carious, curiosa, picaras, picaros, prosaic. | |
-3 letters: acarus, capias, capris, carpus, copras, corpus, croups, curios, parous, picara, picaro, sapour, scoria, souari, soucar, upsoar. | |
-4 letters: acari, arcus, arias, aspic, auras, auric, auris, capos, carpi, carps, coirs, copra, coria, corps, coups, craps, crisp, crops, croup, curia, curio, orcas, pacas, pairs, paisa, paras, paris, picas, pious. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-a-c-i-o-p-r-s-u" | |
+2 letters: rapaciously. | |
+4 letters: haruspication, paramountcies, posttraumatic, quadraphonics, rapaciousness. | |
+5 letters: claustrophobia, haruspications. | |
| 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 Frequency | 5. Expressions 6. Expressions: Internet 7. Translations: Modern 8. Translations: Ancient | 9. Derivations 10. Rhymes 11. Anagrams 12. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
