voracious

adjective

vo·​ra·​cious və-ˈrā-shəs 

vȯ-

1

: having a huge appetite : ravenous

2

: excessively eager : insatiable

a voracious reader

voraciously adverb

voraciousness noun

Did you know?

Voracious is one of several English words that come 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 that describe the diets of various creatures. 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").

Did you know?

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").

Synonyms of voracious

• greedy
• ravenous
• hungry

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

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

Smith, whose second book in the The Rose Bargain doubled the sales of the first, proving her audience’s voracious appetite, says this is a book that’s been a long time coming. — Lizz Schumer, PEOPLE, 16 Sep. 2026

The market has already shown a voracious appetite for companies demonstrating copious free cash flows at a time when it's become scarce. — Michael Santoli, CNBC, 15 Sep. 2026

The public outrage over data centers, which the Post said has inspired 375 bills in state legislatures so far, embodies a concern far beyond their voracious demands for land, electricity and water. — Orlando Sentinel, The Orlando Sentinel, 8 Sep. 2026

California lawmakers advance sweeping bills to curb Big Tech’s power, targeting addictive social media, artificial intelligence in the workplace and voracious data centers amid mounting public anxiety over technology’s harms. — Queenie Wong, Los Angeles Times, 1 Sep. 2026

Word History

Etymology

Latin vorac-, vorax, from vorare to devour; akin to Old English ācweorran to guzzle, Latin gurges whirlpool, Greek bibrōskein to devour

First Known Use

1599, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for voracious

• arenaceous
• argillaceous
• carbonaceous
• contumacious
• coriaceous
• efficacious
• farinaceous
• foliaceous
• membranaceous
• ochraceous
• olivaceous
• ostentatious

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Kids Definition

voracious

adjective

vo·​ra·​cious vȯ-ˈrā-shəs 

və-

1

: having a huge appetite : ravenous

voracious fish

2

: very eager

a voracious reader

voraciously adverb

voracity

-ˈras-ət-ē

noun