as in materialism
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Recent Examples of possessiveness
In the film, Brack’s attraction to Hedda, investment in her material future, and his familiarity with her father are all underlined, and by the end feel like a mounting pressure of desire and possessiveness directed at her.
—
Rory Doherty, Time, 29 Oct. 2025
Wright is magnetic, walking a fine line between maternal concern and suffocating possessiveness.
—Paul Tassi, Forbes.com, 10 Sep. 2025
There’s a certain irony in China’s possessiveness over its Labubu IP.
—Ramishah Maruf, CNN Money, 24 Aug. 2025
The possessiveness people have around these characters is so intense.
—EW.com, 22 Aug. 2025
But there’s a shiver of possessiveness in his bearing, something the filmmaker suggests through subtle means like a lingering glimpse of Pedro’s hand gripping Lina’s desk.
—Jon Frosch, HollywoodReporter, 3 Sep. 2019
Rory Doherty, Time, 29 Oct. 2025
Wright is magnetic, walking a fine line between maternal concern and suffocating possessiveness.
—Paul Tassi, Forbes.com, 10 Sep. 2025
There’s a certain irony in China’s possessiveness over its Labubu IP.
—Ramishah Maruf, CNN Money, 24 Aug. 2025
The possessiveness people have around these characters is so intense.
—EW.com, 22 Aug. 2025
But there’s a shiver of possessiveness in his bearing, something the filmmaker suggests through subtle means like a lingering glimpse of Pedro’s hand gripping Lina’s desk.
—Jon Frosch, HollywoodReporter, 3 Sep. 2019
Recent Examples of Synonyms for possessiveness
Noun
-
The record captures mounting angst, pushes back against control and calls out the capitalistic sides of our culture that fuel materialism and overconsumption.—
Audrey Gibbs,
Nashville Tennessean,
20 Oct. 2025
-
Jeff Manchester might have been a folk hero of the early 2000s, but his story resonates even more today, with wealth inequality and performative materialism higher than ever.—
Katie Walsh,
Twin Cities,
11 Oct. 2025
Noun
-
Just 100 years after the country’s founding, the highest office of the land was rife with corruption and greed.—
Aramide Tinubu,
Variety,
6 Nov. 2025
-
Our brains evolved to spot danger, not to manage portfolios, and the instincts that once kept us alive now push us towards panic and greed.—
Big Think,
Big Think,
30 Oct. 2025
Noun
-
Mammon, the lord of avarice and demon god of greed and money.—
Brian Truitt,
USA Today,
20 Sep. 2025
-
Mandel plays a former Russia astronaut, whose avarice gets the better of him, while Perlman’s character is an older man struggling to cope with harsh terrain and sub-zero temperatures.—
Melanie Goodfellow,
Deadline,
1 Sep. 2025
Noun
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Every February and September, when the event takes place, critics and showgoers bemoan that the entire affair is strangled by commercialism and limping toward irrelevance.—
Ana Karina Zatarain,
New Yorker,
19 Sep. 2025
-
Such a move would never be tolerated or accepted by a footballing environment that remains deeply suspicious of commercialism and militantly on guard against any move in that direction.—
Sebastian Stafford-Bloor,
New York Times,
20 Aug. 2025
Noun
-
People in the comments shared in the woman’s frustration, agreeing that her mother's greediness needs to be addressed.—
Meredith Wilshere,
PEOPLE,
5 Oct. 2025
-
When kids didn’t withdraw, it was sometimes seen as greediness.—
Mary Frances Ruskell,
CNN Money,
15 Aug. 2025
Noun
-
In recent books, French has borrowed elements of the western genre to explore corporate rapacity in the era of climate change and looked at life in a small Irish village with the ear to both insider and outsider.—
Marc Weingarten,
Los Angeles Times,
14 Apr. 2025
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Adjacent to the Gold Room was the Bravo Bazaar, a mall of real commercial rapacity.—
Doreen St. Félix,
The New Yorker,
17 Nov. 2023
Noun
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Sarah Wynn-Williams’s damning memoir of working at Facebook exposes the predatory cupidity of the company’s executives.—
Rachel Nolan,
The New York Review of Books,
9 May 2025
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Pilgrimage, though couched in spiritual aims, often bordered on sheer cupidity.—
Aatish Taseer,
New York Times,
9 Nov. 2023
Cite this Entry
“Possessiveness.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/possessiveness. Accessed 10 Nov. 2025.
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