1
as in jealousy
a painful awareness of another's possessions or advantages and a desire to have them too
his covetousness for his neighbors' things spoils any enjoyment he might have of his own possessions
Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in greed
an intense selfish desire for wealth or possessions
an insatiable covetousness made her work long hours so that she could afford expensive things
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
Recent Examples of Synonyms for covetousness
Noun
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When Mike sees Holly (Nell Fisher) take over his D&D table, his instinctual protectiveness, even jealousy, soon fades to pride.—
Ben Travers,
IndieWire,
1 Jan. 2026 -
Other witnesses also allegedly told police that the hit-and-run was intentional and claimed that it was motivated by jealousy, per Brazilian outlet UOL.—
Charlotte Phillipp,
PEOPLE,
28 Dec. 2025
Noun
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The political and economic geography of the copperbelt, the mining zone that snakes under Katanga and northern Zambia, has been fashioned by external forces and outside greed since at least the time of Belgian colonization.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
22 Jan. 2026
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Industry is where innocence goes to die, choked out in bed by various personifications of greed.—
Judy Berman,
Time,
19 Jan. 2026
Noun
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Global leaders reflected on rising antisemitism and the need for unity to combat hatred and war, drawing parallels to defeating Nazism in 1945.—
Vanessa Gera,
Los Angeles Times,
27 Jan. 2026
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The annual global event remembers the 6 million Jewish victims and millions of other victims and the commitment to stand against hatred and intolerance.—
Linda Mcintosh,
San Diego Union-Tribune,
26 Jan. 2026
Noun
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Andrew Jackson’s campaign against the Second Bank of the United States, for example, expressed a populist resentment of eastern banking on the part of western and southern states.—
Walter Russell Mead,
The Atlantic,
24 Jan. 2026
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The book begins by the deathbed of an elderly sister whose two remaining sisters have a falling out over cake—the kind of domestic spat that becomes mythic and completely unspecific, the details lost in a lingering fog of resentment.—
Chloe Schama,
Vogue,
24 Jan. 2026
Noun
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The film follows a lonely fisherwoman who asks a master basket weaver to build her a husband out of wood, only to become the envy of the village that once shunned her.—
Christian Zilko,
IndieWire,
25 Jan. 2026
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America’s creative community is the envy of the world and creates jobs, economic growth, and exports.—
Elsa Keslassy,
Variety,
22 Jan. 2026
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Cite this Entry
“Covetousness.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/covetousness. Accessed 30 Jan. 2026.
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