rapacious means voracious; avaricious. It carries an Arena rating of 1594, earned across 4 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, rapacious ranks #1,302 of 17,134 for Most Malleable Words, #1,464 of 17,131 for Scariest Words, #1,850 of 17,127 for Words That Escaped Their Books, #3,987 of 17,126 for Most Elegant Words.
rapacious is pronounced /ɹəˈpeɪ.ʃəs/.
Why “rapacious” is a great word
Aggressively greedy, especially in seizing or plundering resources or prey. From Latin rapāx, rapāci- (“grasping, greedy”), from rapere (“to seize, snatch”), combined with the English suffix -ous; first attested in English in the 1650s. Unlike “voracious,” which suggests an insatiable appetite for consumption, or “acquisitive,” which implies a more neutral desire to collect, rapacious carries the sharp edge of predation—the swift, violent snatching of what is not offered. It is the hawk’s shadow falling across the field-mouse, the corporate raider stripping a pension fund with legal precision, and the diplomat who signs treaties with one hand while his ships loot the harbor; a word that tastes of iron and dust, and smells like a fire set not for warmth, but to clear the land for someone else’s gain.
Etymology
Perhaps from rapacity + -ous, in any case ultimately from Latin rapāx (“grasping, greedy”) + -acious.
adj
- Voracious; avaricious.e.g.“To presume a want of motives for such contests [of power between states] as an argument against their existence, would be to forget that men are ambitious, vindictive, and rapacious.” — 1787, Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 6: Concerning Dangers from Dissensions Between the States:
- Given to taking by force or plundering; aggressively greedy.e.g.“A Prince […] sooner becomes hated by being rapacious and by interfering with the property and with the women of his subjects, than in any other way.” — 1910, Niccolò Machiavelli, “Chapter XIX”, in Ninian Hill Thomson, transl., The Prince:
- Subsisting off live prey.e.g.“Even the rapacious birds appeared to comprehend the nature of the ceremony, for […] they once more began to make their airy circuits above the place[…]” — 1827, James Fenimore Cooper, “Chapter XIII”, in The Prairie:
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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