Avidness Definition & Meaning

Choose the Right Synonym for avid

eager, avid, keen, anxious, athirst mean moved by a strong and urgent desire or interest. eager implies ardor and enthusiasm and sometimes impatience at delay or restraint. eager to get started avid adds to eager the implication of insatiability or greed. avid for new thrills keen suggests intensity of interest and quick responsiveness in action. keen on the latest fashions anxious emphasizes fear of frustration or failure or disappointment. anxious not to make a social blunder athirst stresses yearning but not necessarily readiness for action. athirst for adventure

The Finer Points of Avid

The original and now relatively unfamiliar sense of avid, “desirous to the point of greed,” developed logically from its root in Latin, avēre (meaning “to long for”). It appears in such phrases as “avid of fame” and “avid for details,” expressions we are more likely to encounter in formal writing than in speech. More common today is the word’s somewhat weakened and ameliorated (that is, “made better,” or given a more positive connotation) meaning “extremely enthusiastic.” This is the sense regularly used of people who have embraced some hobby or pursuit (such as avid readers, gardeners, or knitters).

Examples of avid in a Sentence

He is an avid admirer of horror movies. They took an avid interest in politics. some of the newspaper's most avid readers

Recent Examples on the Web But his children most remember Parker as an involved dad and an avid hiker, camper and craftsman who carved busts of famous figures from wood and made much of the family's furniture. — Kathleen Foody, Chron, 16 Mar. 2022 Mike Windsor, avid hiker and travel photographer, tells me that Mount Ashland as one of his favorite sites to visit because of Pilot Rock. — Navpreet Dhillon, Sunset Magazine, 11 Feb. 2022 An avid hiker, Morris is involved in locating native chestnut trees, harvesting the nuts, and providing them for planting in Germplasm Orchards in Connecticut. — courant.com, 1 Oct. 2021 An avid hiker, Coleman had been planning the Glacier National Park trip for months, said Jarels, a close friend of her family. — Washington Post, 8 Sep. 2021 Their adventure is helping Green, an avid hiker, fulfill a lifelong dream of walking across the country. — Jean Mikle, USA TODAY, 31 July 2021 Roxanna Lewis, a travel agent and avid hiker and runner from Los Angeles, took a few friends on a hike up Mt. Baldy a while back. — Los Angeles Times, 30 July 2021 Grace Wu is a textiles product review analyst at the Good Housekeeping Institute and an avid hiker. — Emma Seymour, Good Housekeeping, 8 June 2022 So, the avid hiker decided to use it to fulfill a childhood fantasy, one inspired by the adventures of Indiana Jones. — The Salt Lake Tribune, 4 June 2022 See More

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'avid.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.