rapacity

American  

[ruh-pas-i-tee] / rəˈpæs ɪ ti /

Also rapaciousness

noun

1. the quality of being rapacious, or given to seizing things for plunder.

   That the monastery was raided six times, and burned 26 times in between, shows the rapacity of the Vikings.

2. extreme greediness; predatory quality or character.

   People blamed the higher prices on the rapacity of businesses.

3. (of animals) the fact or characteristic of subsisting by the capture of living prey.

   The early settlers of America suffered from the severity of the climate and the rapacity of wolves.

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Other Word Forms

• unrapaciousness noun

Etymology

Origin of rapacity

First recorded in 1490–1500, from Latin rapācitās, equivalent to rapāci- (stem of rapāx “greedy”; see rapacious ( def. )) + -tās -ty ² ( def. )

Example Sentences

Perhaps my cynicism about Mr. Witkoff’s curious mix of ingenuousness and rapacity is unfair.

From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 1, 2025

But we had no illusion that Ricca, et al., would actually restrain their rapacity.

From Washington Times • Dec. 25, 2020

Despite her dark wardrobe and wolflike rapacity on stage, she has a softness in person.

From New York Times • May 6, 2016

In one early and unsuccessful debate in 1753, the MP for York asserted that a census would "impair the liberty of the individual", describing it as a "most effectual engine of rapacity and repression".

From The Guardian • Mar. 10, 2011

With Great-Bridge fallen, nothing stood between their town and the rapacity of the enemy.

From "The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume II: The Kingdom on the Waves" by M.T. Anderson