possessiveness

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of possessiveness 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
  • Novel spiritual beliefs are pushing you to release the need for materialism.
    Lisa Stardust, Refinery29, 4 Sep. 2025
  • The Roses stars Olivia Colman and Benedict Cumberbatch in a new spin on the same story, examining how status and materialism impact interpersonal relationships.
    Madison E. Goldberg, People.com, 26 Aug. 2025
Noun
  • In the 13-episode epic, Our Blues’ Kim Woo-bin stars as Iblis, a Satanic genie who is utterly convinced of humanity’s inherent greed.
    Kayti Burt, Time, 3 Oct. 2025
  • The larger themes of Midnight Timetable are about death and loss, yes, but how frequently greed and cruelty sprout from this fertile earth.
    Diana Arterian October 2, Literary Hub, 2 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
  • 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
  • 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
  • Tablets: Secrets of the Clay by Dunya Mikhail Sue Halpern For the Love of Money 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
  • Pilgrimage, though couched in spiritual aims, often bordered on sheer cupidity.
    Aatish Taseer, New York Times, 9 Nov. 2023

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Cite this Entry

“Possessiveness.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/possessiveness. Accessed 7 Oct. 2025.

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