Meaning & use

cupidity

noun·Advanced

An excessive, greedy desire for money, wealth, or possessions.

See it in a sentence

The old man's cupidity led him to cheat his own relatives out of their inheritance.

Cupidity, not necessity, drove the executives to falsify the company's earnings.

A note on using this word

Cupidity is a formal, disapproving word for greed, related to the Latin root that also gives us 'Cupid' and 'covet'.

Words with a similar meaning

greedavarice

Choose a synonym to suit the sentence. Meanings can overlap without being identical.

Words with an opposite meaning

Make it your own

Write a sentence using “cupidity”, then compare your use with the examples above.

Your draft stays on this page and is not sent anywhere.