Meaning & use
cupidity
Last updated
Meaning
noununcountableformaldisapproving
A strong, selfish wish to have more money or possessions.
Grammar: Not used with an or plural: his cupidity grew.
Patterns
- cupidity of someone
- motivated by cupidity
The king's cupidity led him to tax the farmers heavily.
Her cousin's cupidity became obvious when he asked about the will.
The scandal revealed the cupidity of the bank's directors.
Common combinations
- sheer cupidity
- The fraud was driven by sheer cupidity.
- motivated by cupidity
- The heirs were motivated by cupidity.
- cupidity and corruption
- The novel is a study of cupidity and corruption.
- appeal to cupidity
- The scheme appealed to the cupidity of investors.
- human cupidity
- History records endless examples of human cupidity.
Synonyms and how they differ
- greed
- It is the common word and applies to food or power too, while cupidity is formal and mostly about money.
- avarice
- It is a close literary match, stressing the miserly love of hoarding wealth.
- rapacity
- It adds the idea of grabbing violently and aggressively.
- covetousness
- It focuses on wanting what belongs to someone else.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: cupidity or Cupid? cupidity or stupidity?
cupidity vs Cupid
Cupid is the god of love, while cupidity is greed for money, and they share only a Latin root meaning desire.
cupidity vs stupidity
Stupidity means foolishness; it just rhymes with cupidity.
Practice
The investigation showed that the scheme was driven by pure ___, as the directors wanted only to enrich themselves.
Choose one answer.
Cupidity means greed for wealth, which fits wanting only to enrich themselves. Stupidity sounds similar but is about foolishness, and the others are opposites.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “cupidity”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.