cupidity means extreme greed, especially for wealth. It carries an Arena rating of 1765, earned across 22 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, cupidity ranks #545 of 17,132 for Most Betrayed by Its Sound, #1,302 of 17,104 for Most Storied Words, #1,551 of 17,143 for Best Fossil-Poetry Words, #1,832 of 17,138 for Most Incisive Words.
cupidity is pronounced /kjuːˈpɪdəti/.
Why “cupidity” is a great word
Cupidity is an extreme, acquisitive greed for wealth or material gain. From French cupidité, from Latin cupiditās (“strong desire”), from cupidus (“keen, desirous”). Unlike lust, which burns for flesh, or avarice, which coldly hoards its gold, cupidity is the covetous, restless hunger to possess—the glitter in a pawnbroker’s eye, the prospector’s fever at a quartz vein, the collector’s anxious tap as a new lot is bid. It is the quiet, relentless engine of acquisition, mistaking the gleam of possession for the warmth of being.
Etymology
From French cupidité, from Latin cupiditās (“strong desire”), from cupidus (“keen, desirous”). Compare Cupid.
noun
- Extreme greed, especially for wealth.e.g.“A bargain is a social evil; one man's loss, tempting another man's cupidity.” — 1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “A Late Breakfast”, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 71:
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
Words closest in meaning
By meaning, not spelling — each word's AI semantic fingerprint, nearest first.