insatiable
/ɪnˈseɪʃ(j)əbəl/
insatiable means not satiable; incapable of being satisfied or appeased; very greedy. It carries an Arena rating of 1556, earned across 2 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, insatiable ranks #1,340 of 17,134 for Most Malleable Words, #1,593 of 42,752 for Qualifying, #1,831 of 17,127 for Words That Escaped Their Books, #2,186 of 17,131 for Scariest Words.
insatiable is pronounced /ɪnˈseɪʃ(j)əbəl/.
Why “insatiable” is a great word
Incapable of being satisfied or appeased; extremely greedy. Its lineage is one of negation: from Middle English insaciable, by way of Middle French insatiable, from Late Latin insatiabilis, built from the negative prefix in- upon satiabilis ("able to be satisfied"), which itself flows from satiare ("to fill, satisfy"). Unlike "voracious," which implies an immense but potentially sateable appetite, or "unquenchable," which often describes a persistent yet singular craving, "insatiable" denotes an absolute condition—a bottomless, defining hunger. It is the glutton who is full yet still eats, the tyrant whose conquests only map new frontiers for his ambition, and the collector whose most prized acquisition merely empties the room for the next. To be insatiable is to live in a state of perpetual deficit, where the world is a measure of what it cannot provide.
Etymology
Inherited from Middle English insaciable, from Middle French insatiable, from Old French insaciable, from Late Latin insatiabilis. By surface analysis, in- + satiable.
adj
- Not satiable; incapable of being satisfied or appeased; very greedy.
noun
- One who or that which cannot be satiated.
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.