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as in predatory
living by killing and eating other animals rapacious mammals, such as coyotes, foxes, and bobcats

Synonyms & Similar Words

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

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Synonym Chooser

How is the word rapacious different from other adjectives like it?

Some common synonyms of rapacious are gluttonous, ravenous, and voracious. While all these words mean "excessively greedy," rapacious often suggests excessive and utterly selfish acquisitiveness or avarice.

rapacious developers indifferent to environmental concerns

When can gluttonous be used instead of rapacious?

Although the words gluttonous and rapacious have much in common, 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

When could ravenous be used to replace rapacious?

The synonyms ravenous and rapacious are sometimes interchangeable, but 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

When might voracious be a better fit than rapacious?

The meanings of voracious and rapacious largely overlap; however, voracious applies especially to habitual gorging with food or drink.

teenagers are often voracious eaters

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 rapacious The man is rapacious — a hungry ghost with a big mouth and an empty stomach. David Ehrlich, IndieWire, 31 Aug. 2025 The sensationalized trial, every detail passed from rapacious reporters to a bloodthirsty public. Angie Han, HollywoodReporter, 19 Aug. 2025 Black people are depicted as rapists and cannibals, Jews as rapacious and controlling, and white people who believe in a multicultural society as race traitors who also deserve to die. James Shapiro, The Atlantic, 18 July 2025 But the cynicism that has always thrummed underneath his high-concept comedies — the dehumanizing algorithms, the rapacious finance system — is more prominent in this slim, potent novel. Mark Athitakis, Los Angeles Times, 3 July 2025 See All Example Sentences for rapacious
Recent Examples of Synonyms for rapacious
Adjective
  • Polaha plays Dick Hall, the president of Meridian Mortgage who is taken hostage by Tony Kiritsis (Ribisi), who publicly accuses him on being a greedy and cutthroat monster.
    Matt Grobar, Deadline, 24 Sep. 2025
  • Left-wing antisemitism, which cast Jews as greedy capitalists, existed as well, especially in France, but Jew-baiting remained primarily a right-wing pursuit, the work of illiberal nativists who saw a tiny minority as polluting the purity of their racial or religious communities.
    Ian Buruma, New Yorker, 22 Sep. 2025
Adjective
  • Birds, parasitic wasps, ladybugs, and other predatory insects are enemies of fall armyworms.
    Mary Marlowe Leverette, Southern Living, 14 Oct. 2025
  • Growth done right means building thriving, connected communities where families can live, work, and play without spending hours stuck in traffic or paying predatory toll prices just to move.
    Eleanor Dearman, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 13 Oct. 2025
Adjective
  • That sounds a lot like Cassian Andor, the mercenary orphan turned galactic hero at the heart of two seasons of Andor on Disney+.
    Maureen Lee Lenker, Entertainment Weekly, 11 Oct. 2025
  • Black and his co-writers soften the cold mercenary side of Parker by giving him something of a moral compass, which prompts him to toss $10,000 to the stranger’s wife before fleeing the scene.
    David Rooney, HollywoodReporter, 30 Sep. 2025
Adjective
  • Those ravenous fans still gave it a rare A+ CinemaScore, naturally, which is certainly kinder than some music critics were to the album itself.
    Brian Welk, IndieWire, 6 Oct. 2025
  • But few of the directors who would join V/H/S over the years that followed introduced a more memorable creature — a birdlike demon who oscillates from purring affection to ravenous rage — or so skillfully tracked the running bodies captured by a running camera.
    A.A. Dowd, Vulture, 3 Oct. 2025
Adjective
  • But is better than the alternative of admitting to an avaricious Moscow that Ukraine must accept some kind of defeat.
    Nick Paton Walsh, CNN Money, 24 Sep. 2025
  • Manipulating these obviously very greedy and avaricious [people] is still kind of beneath his skills.
    Lily Ford, HollywoodReporter, 14 Aug. 2025
Adjective
  • Curry also remembered the future president being very eager for his then-girlfriend, Marla Maples, to be introduced to the film's director, Chris Columbus.
    Lauren Huff, Entertainment Weekly, 15 Oct. 2025
  • Showgirl was introduced as an album that gives fans a look behind the Eras Tour curtain, so attendees of that tour were eager to not just relive the magic but learn more about Taylor’s thought processes during such a whirlwind time of her career.
    Eric Renner Brown, Billboard, 14 Oct. 2025
Adjective
  • Building out that platform and benefiting as more teams are plugged into it has meant Leonsis and MSE have stayed acquisitive.
    Ian Thomas, CNBC, 18 Sep. 2025
  • Retail e-commerce penetration had surged during the pandemic, which brought a rush of acquisitive capital into the space.
    Lien De Pau, Forbes.com, 31 Aug. 2025

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Cite this Entry

“Rapacious.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/rapacious. Accessed 20 Oct. 2025.

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