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

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 The currency gained safe-haven status, thanks partly to Japanese investors who have been voracious buyers of overseas stocks and bonds for years due to ultralow interest rates at home. — Saumya Vaishampayan, WSJ, "Why the Yen Hasn’t Been a Safe Bet," 20 Dec. 2018 It’s more accurate to see them as manifestations of a lifetime’s voracious, multivalent reading and looking—inventive mental collages or marvelous pastiches of unimaginably wide-ranging sources. — Karen Wilkin, WSJ, "‘Born to Be Posthumous’ Review: Peculiar, Cynical, Ironic & Witty," 21 Dec. 2018 And according to a Nielsen 2017 study, black females are among media’s most voracious, savvy, and loyal consumers, and remain dedicated fans to physical magazines, even in a fast-changing media landscape. — Marjon Carlos, Glamour, "September's Black Fashion Cover Stars Reveal More Than Just Style," 8 Aug. 2018 The eggs will hatch into one-third-inch-long yellow-green larvae, which will turn into small but voracious adult beetles in late June. — Beth Botts, chicagotribune.com, "Beetles are out to get your viburnums. Here's how to fight back.," 7 Mar. 2018 Ruthless, indomitable and voracious, the femme fatale Asughara brandishes Ada like a weapon. — David Wright, The Seattle Times, "‘Freshwater’: a bewitching tale of gods and a girl coming of age," 20 Feb. 2018 Scientists say predators are needed to prevent the moose herd, which totals about 1,500, from becoming so large that the voracious animals overeat trees and shrubs. — John Flesher, The Seattle Times, "Wolf taken to Isle Royale National Park this fall dies," 14 Nov. 2018 Today, for instance, the voracious Indo-Pacific lionfish is gobbling up local fish in the west Atlantic, while the Asian carp threatens the ecosystem of the Great Lakes. — Amanda Foreman, WSJ, "Overrun by Alien Species," 1 Nov. 2018

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.