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''cupidity'' ▫ᴱᴺ｜Definition｜1st｜20260708144405-00-⌔

cupidity - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

Noun

cupidity (countable and uncountable, plural cupidities)

  • Extreme greed, especially for wealth.
    • ✤ A bargain is a social evil; one man’s loss, tempting another man’s cupidity.1
    • ✤ Now Jonah’s Captain, shipmates, was one whose discernment detects crime in any, but whose cupidity exposes it only in the penniless.2
    • ✤ His affairs, however, were not allowed to subside thus quietly, and people were quite as much inclined to talk about the disinterested sacrifice he had made, as they had before been to upbraid him for his cupidity.3
    • ✤ “I have tried, as I hinted, to enlist the co-operation of other capitalists, but experience has taught me that any appeal is futile that does not impinge directly upon cupidity. …”4
    • ✤ Humanity had always been fascinated by the mystery of the falling dice, the turn of a card, the spin of the pointer. At its lowest level, this interest was based on mere cupidity —and that was an emotion that could have no place in a world where everyone possessed all that they could reasonably need.5
    • ✤ To previous resentment of the wide acceptance socially of[George] Hudson was added the venom of those whose cupidity had led them astray.6
    • ✤ It was easy to dissimulate and disperse these modest purchases in such a way as not to excite the cupidity of any passing patrols.7

Etymology

From French cupidité, from Latin cupiditās (“strong desire”), from cupidus (“keen, desirous”). Compare Cupid.

Pronunciation

  • (UK) IPA: /kjuːˈpɪdəti/
  • Audio (UK): 🔊

Printed 2026-07-08.

(echo:: @ ⌗)

Footnotes

  1. 1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “A Late Breakfast”, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 71: ↩

  2. 1851, Herman Melville, Moby Dick, Chapter 9: ↩

  3. 1857, Anthony Trollope, Barchester Towers, Volume the First, →ISBN, page 11: ↩

  4. 1913, Robert Barr, chapter 4, in Lord Stranleigh Abroad ‎: ↩

  5. 1956, Arthur C. Clarke, The City and the Stars, page 37: ↩

  6. 1960 March, N. Caplan, “A Railway Member of Parliament”, in Railway Magazine, page 207: ↩

  7. 1982, Lawrence Durrell, Constance, Faber & Faber 2004 (Avignon Quintet), p. 784: ↩

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