kyüˈpidəd.ē, -ətē, -i noun
( -es )
Etymology: Middle English cupidite, from Middle French cupidité, from Latin cupiditat-, cupiditas, from cupidus desirous + -itat-, -itas -ity — more at covet
1. archaic : strong desire : ardent longing : lust
2. : inordinate desire for wealth : avarice , greed
these reports … inflamed … curiosity and cupidity all the more — R.W.Murray
Synonyms:
cupidity , greed , rapacity , avarice can signify in common an inordinate desire for wealth or possessions. cupidity stresses the intensity of the desire, strongly suggesting covetousness
the vast cupidity of business in preempting the virgin resources of California — V.L.Parrington
the poverty-stricken man gazed at the silverware and jewels with cupidity shining intensely in his face
greed implies inordinate desire as a controlling passion and usually connotes both meanness and covetousness
[his] face and green-gray eyes mirrored a low, incessant, gnawing greed … for power, for money, for destruction — W.A.White
the craving for more than she needs is a symptom of neurotic greed — Leo Gurko
their whole being made over to desire for an iced cake or a caramel. It was an honest greed — Audrey Barker
rapacity implies not only cupidity but the actual seizing of the thing desired or of anything that will satisfy greed, often suggesting extortion, plunder, or oppressive exactions
the rapacity of the tax collectors was nothing to the greed of the landlords
the rapacity of the first foreign conquest on this continent — Russell Lord
the rapacity of the warlords — Nathaniel Peffer
avarice stresses both greed and miserliness
life … was a sort of furnace in which all the elements of human nature were transmuted into a single white flame, an incandescence of the passion of avarice — Van Wyck Brooks
economy approached the border of avarice — Ellen Glasgow