avarice

From Middle English avarice, from Old French, from Latin avāritia, from avārus (“greedy”).

• (non-merged vowel) IPA^(key): /ˈævəɹɪs/
• (merged vowel) IPA^(key): /ˈævəɹəs/, /ˈævɹəs/^[1]

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ævəɹəs

avarice (usually uncountable, plural avarices)

1. Excessive or inordinate desire of gain; greed for wealth

   Synonyms: covetousness, cupidity

   • 1788, Publius [pseudonym; Alexander Hamilton], “Number XII”, in The Federalist: A Collection of Essays, Written in Favour of the New Constitution, […] , volume I, New York, N.Y.: […] J. and A. M‘Lean, […], →OCLC:

     By multiplying the means of gratification, by promoting the introduction and circulation of the precious metals, those darling objects of human avarice and enterprise, it serves to vivify and invigorate the channels of industry, and to make them flow with greater activity and copiousness.

2. Inordinate desire for some supposed good.

• avariciousness
• See also Thesaurus:greed

• avaricious, avariciously

• caviare

Inherited from Old French avarice, borrowed from Latin avaritia. Cognate with Italian avarizia, Portuguese avareza, Spanish avaricia.

• IPA^(key): /a.va.ʁis/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Audio (France (Vosges)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Saint-Étienne)):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -is

avarice f (plural avarices)

1. greed; avarice

• avare
• avarement
• avaricieux

• “avarice”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Borrowed from Latin avaritia.

avarice oblique singular, f (oblique plural avarices, nominative singular avarice, nominative plural avarices)

1. greed; avarice

• → English: avarice
• French: avarice