COVETOUSNESS

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does covetousness mean? 

• COVETOUSNESS (noun)
  The noun COVETOUSNESS has 3 senses:

1. an envious eagerness to possess something

2. extreme greed for material wealth

3. reprehensible acquisitiveness; insatiable desire for wealth (personified as one of the deadly sins)

  Familiarity information: COVETOUSNESS used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• COVETOUSNESS (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

An envious eagerness to possess something

Classified under:

Nouns denoting feelings and emotions

Hypernyms ("covetousness" is a kind of...):

enviousness; envy (a feeling of grudging admiration and desire to have something that is possessed by another)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Extreme greed for material wealth

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

avarice; avariciousness; covetousness; cupidity

Hypernyms ("covetousness" is a kind of...):

greed (excessive desire to acquire or possess more (especially more material wealth) than one needs or deserves)

Derivation:

covetous (showing extreme cupidity; painfully desirous of another's advantages)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Reprehensible acquisitiveness; insatiable desire for wealth (personified as one of the deadly sins)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

avarice; avaritia; covetousness; greed; rapacity

Hypernyms ("covetousness" is a kind of...):

deadly sin; mortal sin (an unpardonable sin entailing a total loss of grace)

Derivation:

covetous (immoderately desirous of acquiring e.g. wealth)

 Context examples 

"Certainly. Go, dear, I forgot that you have any home but this," and Mrs. March pressed the white hand that wore the wedding ring, as if asking pardon for her maternal covetousness.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)