as in jealousy
a painful awareness of another's possessions or advantages and a desire to have them too
their envy of their neighbor's fancy home threatened to wreck their friendship
Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
as in to resent
to have a resentful awareness of and desire for (another's possessions or advantages) or to feel resentment toward (someone) over possessions or advantages
her coworkers envied her chummy relationship with the senior vice president they envied him because he didn't have to work for a living
Synonyms & Similar Words
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of envy
Scottie Andrew, CNN Money, 15 Apr. 2026
Most of all, though, the cure for envy is to try to see what’s in front of us.
—Literary Hub, 14 Apr. 2026
Jon Wertheim, CBS News, 5 Apr. 2026
American strategy toward Caracas amounts to granting the recycled regime the international legitimacy that Maduro never enjoyed and that Chávez might well have envied.
—Boris Muñoz, Time, 3 Apr. 2026
See All Example Sentences for envy
Noun
Offscreen, some fans accuse Wyle of explaining away or downplaying his fictional character’s cruelty, and of a constellation of other sins, including envy of his fellow actors’ credentials.
—Scottie Andrew, CNN Money, 15 Apr. 2026
Most of all, though, the cure for envy is to try to see what’s in front of us.
—Literary Hub, 14 Apr. 2026
Verb
The American rail system was once envied around the world.
—Jon Wertheim, CBS News, 5 Apr. 2026
American strategy toward Caracas amounts to granting the recycled regime the international legitimacy that Maduro never enjoyed and that Chávez might well have envied.
—Boris Muñoz, Time, 3 Apr. 2026
See All Example Sentences for envy
Recent Examples of Synonyms for envy
Noun
-
As the master said, there was only one way to live without jealousy.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
14 Apr. 2026
-
JoAnne is mired in student debt and married to her former professor, fueling understandable jealousy behind her therapist’s poker face.—
Alison Herman,
Variety,
12 Apr. 2026
Verb
-
Each character has totally justified and totally unjustified reasons for resenting one another, and the sensation of absorbing those contrasting opinions is like being in a stuck bumper car, barraged and battered from all sides.—
Roxana Hadadi,
Vulture,
16 Apr. 2026
-
Some students, not receiving this advantage, resent it.—
Richard E. Vatz,
Baltimore Sun,
15 Apr. 2026
Noun
-
Here was a player who had without doubt suffered more abuse and more taunts and more hatred than any player in the history of the game.—
Assistant Sports Editor,
Los Angeles Times,
15 Apr. 2026
-
Well, maybe that hatred of losing — truly not accepting it, and confronting others who are OK with it — is the pathway to winning.—
Aaron Portzline,
New York Times,
15 Apr. 2026
Noun
-
Season 2 of the Netflix iteration dropped all nine of its episodes on April 10, with early promises to stay faithful evaporating as new attractions emerged and simmering resentments boiled over.—
Randall Colburn,
Entertainment Weekly,
11 Apr. 2026
-
But Elham, a contentious and fiercely competitive student, suspects that Marjan’s zeal for anglophone culture, including Hollywood romantic comedies, masks a resentment for the Iranian life she is now stuck with.—
Theater Critic,
Los Angeles Times,
11 Apr. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Envy.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/envy. Accessed 22 Apr. 2026.
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