Definition of VORACIOUS

Choose the Right Synonym for voracious

voracious, gluttonous, ravenous, rapacious mean excessively greedy. 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

Veracious or voracious?

Take care to distinguish between the near-homophones veracious and voracious, whose similarities in sound mask utterly different meanings. Veracious (“honest, truthful”), like its cousins veritable, verify, and very, concerns that which is true. Voracious (”having a greedy or insatiable appetite”), on the other hand, describes the urge to consume large quantities of something, often food, books, or ideas. One way to remember the difference is that the one with the E as its second letter means "truE," and the one with the O as its second letter means "ravenOus." Not coincidentally, these adjectives have near-homophonous noun derivatives: veracity ("truthfulness") and voracity ("the quality or state of being voracious").

Did You Know?

Voracious is one of several English words that derive from the Latin verb vorare, which means "to eat greedily" or "to devour." "Vorare" is also an ancestor of "devour" and of the "-ivorous" words, which describe the diets of various animals. These include "carnivorous" ("meat-eating"), "herbivorous" ("plant-eating"), "omnivorous" ("feeding on both animals and plants"), "frugivorous" ("fruit-eating"), "graminivorous" ("feeding on grass"), and "piscivorous" ("fish-eating").

Examples of voracious in a Sentence

He has a voracious appetite. it seemed like the voracious kitten was eating her weight in food every day

Recent Examples on the Web

Seabird experts wonder whether the presence of more pollock and Pacific cod, which have voracious appetites and are far more efficient hunters of forage fish than seabirds, was a factor. — Dan Joling, The Seattle Times, "Pace of Bering Sea changes startles scientists," 16 Apr. 2019 By Robert Zaretsky Harvard, 258 pages, $27.95 A voracious reader on virtually any subject, Diderot was an intrepid thinker and tireless writer, a doting father, a warmhearted friend, an ardent conversationalist. — Dan Hofstadter, WSJ, "‘Diderot’ Review: Wherever His Mind Led Him," 15 Feb. 2019 Punk and profane in her writing and her life, Acker was voracious and shape-shifting, rebellious and disruptive, and fiercely adamant (with her tattoos, piercings and signature crew cut) about the awkward and tender toughness of being embodied. — Kathleen Rooney, New York Times, "Three Literary Critics Who Engage With Their Subjects, Unconventionally," 27 Apr. 2018 Marijuana growers are also voracious consumers of supplies like fertilizers, as well as energy. — Ian Austen, The Seattle Times, "Dreams of big profits as marijuana becomes legal in Canada," 16 Oct. 2018 Even if the sharks aren’t all that voracious, tip him. — Joe Queenan, WSJ, "A Few Rules for a World of Tipping Just About Everyone," 14 Feb. 2019 The early songs recall the energetic sounds of early ’70s jazz-rock fusion, with its improvisational fury and voracious attack. — Martin Johnson, WSJ, "‘Stomping Off From Greenwood’ by Greg Ward Review," 17 Jan. 2019 Photos: Maxine Helfman for The Wall Street Journal(3) Collectors in the booming contemporary art world, the engine of the global art market, are voracious for fresh stars. — Kelly Crow, WSJ, "Art World’s Newest Star Makes $3 Million Paintings. Is the Crash Next?," 21 Sep. 2018 These voracious pests are literally eating folks out of their house and home. — Joseph Truini, Popular Mechanics, "How to Get Rid of Termites," 8 Jan. 2019

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