coveted
Americanadjective
-
wrongfully or inordinately desired.
Pizarro led a party of conquistadores in an attempt to discover El Dorado—the source of the coveted gold of the Incas.
-
highly or eagerly wished for.
The Green Building Council's gold certification is a coveted prize for sustainable building design.
verb
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of coveted
Explanation
Coveted means "in demand" or "desired." If the most coveted seat on the bus for you is the one right next to the bathroom, then you shouldn’t have any problem getting it because most people don't want it. Coveted comes from the Latin cupiditas, meaning "passionate desire, eagerness, ambition." Cupid isn't always involved, though — coveted is another way of saying "sought after." The poet Ella Wheeler Wilcox said, “If you are seeking health, wealth, usefulness, skill in any direction, there is nothing and no one who can hinder your attainment of the coveted boon, if you are willing to work and wait." So get to work for all that coveted health and wealth!
Vocabulary lists containing coveted
100 SAT words Beginning with "C"
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The Kite Runner
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This Week in Words: September 29 - October 5, 2018
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Arsenal also coveted the 17-year-old winger, but City won the battle for a player who joined Leicester aged eight and has already broken records in senior football.
From BBC ● Aug. 15, 2026
Batiste, 39, will share his trio of new albums four years after he won the coveted prize for album of the year at the 2022 Grammy Awards for his 2021 release “We Are.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 13, 2026
A US energy exploration company has sparked an outcry by unloading drilling equipment without authorisation on the east coast of Greenland, the autonomous Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump.
From Barron's ● Aug. 11, 2026
They’re as coveted now as the memory chips that AI companies need to build more data centers.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 10, 2026
It was not enough for him to have made the Church powerful and to have alienated his allies, for since he coveted the Kingdom of Naples, he divided it with the King of Spain.
From "The Prince" by Niccolò Machiavelli
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
