voracious applies especially to habitual gorging with food or drink.
teenagers are often voracious eaters
gluttonous applies to one who delights in eating or acquiring things especially beyond the point of necessity or satiety.
an admiral who was gluttonous for glory
ravenous implies excessive hunger and suggests violent or grasping methods of dealing with food or with whatever satisfies an appetite.
a nation with a ravenous lust for territorial expansion
rapacious often suggests excessive and utterly selfish acquisitiveness or avarice.
rapacious developers indifferent to environmental concerns
Examples of rapacious in a Sentence
nothing livens things up like a whole team of rapacious basketball players descending upon the pizza parlor rapacious mammals, such as coyotes, foxes, and bobcats
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Russian President Vladimir Putin, meanwhile, has argued that the war with Ukraine is really a war with a rapacious NATO out to destroy Russia.—Maria Snegovaya, Foreign Affairs, 25 Nov. 2024 That marks him as a potential savior of Rome, the one man who might free the empire from the rapacious appetites of the twin emperors Geta (Joseph Quinn) and Caracalla (Fred Hechinger) and the rich Macrinus (Denzel Washington).—Sarah Shachat, IndieWire, 22 Nov. 2024 Money talked in all these races, and maybe people in Fort Lauderdale are resigned to the rapacious level of development around them.—Sun Sentinel Editorial Board, Sun Sentinel, 7 Nov. 2024 What’s new, though, is his whole narrative, a multipart boardroom saga from the perspective of a developer who was repeatedly cast as a rapacious opportunist.—Justin Davidson, Curbed, 11 Sep. 2024 See all Example Sentences for rapacious
Word History
Etymology
Latin rapāc-, rapāx "given to seizing or catching things (as prey), carrying away, excessively grasping" (from rapere "to seize and carry off" + -āc-, -āx, deverbal suffix denoting habitual or successful performance) + -ious — more at rapid entry 1, audacious
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