voracious

[ vaw-rey-shuhs, vuh- ]

adjective

1. craving or consuming large quantities of food:

   a voracious appetite.

2. exceedingly eager or avid:

   voracious readers; a voracious collector.

   Synonyms: insatiable, rapacious

voracious

/ vɒˈreɪʃəs; vɒˈræsɪtɪ /

adjective

1. devouring or craving food in great quantities
2. very eager or unremitting in some activity

   voracious reading

Derived Forms

• voracity, noun
• voˈraciously, adverb

Other Words From

• vo·ra·cious·ly adverb
• vo·ra·cious·ness noun
• un·vo·ra·cious adjective
• un·vo·ra·cious·ness noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of voracious¹

First recorded in 1625–35; voraci(ty) + -ous

Word History and Origins

Origin of voracious¹

C17: from Latin vorāx swallowing greedily, from vorāre to devour

Synonym Study

See ravenous.

Example Sentences

Our host, the mathematician and author Steven Strogatz, has a voracious intellectual curiosity, but it’s his warm and empathetic nature that makes listening to these interviews such a rewarding, even moving experience.

From Quanta Magazine

To Klobuchar, anti-competitive behavior by the giants of tech has been fueled by a voracious appetite for personal data, which she argues helps fund disinformation and disadvantages the sorts of publishers her dad once worked for.

From Digiday

With the world on lockdown, many of us have become voracious online shoppers.

From Fortune

Seething and voracious, it absorbs eight dinner-plate-size helpings every few seconds.

From Quanta Magazine

When it comes to the impact on how people search, we’ve seen that consumers’ appetite for information is as voracious as ever.

From Search Engine Watch

The sexual appetites of the popes were often just as voracious.

From The Daily Beast

So, if his father was like that, and Cumming shares his voracious sexual appetite, how does he behave differently?

From The Daily Beast

Because the federal government has become so ubiquitous and voracious, there seems to be no negotiating with its size and scope.

From The Daily Beast

I was grateful I could supplement my voracious reading with other media, as it kept me feeling current.

From The Daily Beast

The voracious fans tore it to pieces and “shock rock” was born.

From The Daily Beast

Fire was again given to the voracious jaws of the boilers, and the three engines recommenced their labours and their rivalries.

From Project Gutenberg

The Ternat bats are carnivorous animals, voracious, and possessed of an appetite for every thing that offers.

From Project Gutenberg

It is in the most beautiful azure depths of the limpid water that this hideous, voracious polyp delights.

From Project Gutenberg

The gods were voracious as wolves, and the victims as numerous.

From Project Gutenberg

And the mantis is so voracious that you can cut her in two without making her let go; a chain, truly, of carnage.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• avid
• insatiable
• prodigious
• rapacious
• ravenous