eagerness
Americannoun
Etymology
Origin of eagerness
Explanation
Eagerness is a characteristic of being excited and prepared to do something. Shooting your hand in the air and shouting, "Me! Me!" when your teacher asks for a volunteer is a good way to show your eagerness. A basketball team displays its eagerness by running onto the court at the start of the game, and a puppy's eagerness to lick your face and nibble your fingers is either the cutest thing about it, or one of the many reasons you don't like puppies. Eagerness and eager are both positive words, but in the thirteenth century eager meant "fierce or angry," and it shares a Latin root with the sour word acrid, or "bitter."
Vocabulary lists containing eagerness
A Single Shard
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The Suffix -ness, Part 1
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Greed
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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.
But I can’t recall a flight where I didn’t observe passengers encouraging others to de-board before themselves, and I doubt it happens out of an eagerness to remain aboard a cramped aircraft.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 27, 2026
But they also indicate an eagerness to learn, a will that makes Mona’s eventual callback after Serena Cherry drops out of the show seem almost like manifestation.
From Salon ● Oct. 12, 2026
At G20 trade talks in Milwaukee, US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer struck a conciliatory tone, saying there was an "eagerness on both sides to work together" on the diesel issue.
From Barron's ● Oct. 1, 2026
The eagerness the players showed shocked Alhamad, with all of the squad, except Jaiden Bartolo who is on international duty, agreeing to go within an hour.
From BBC ● Sep. 29, 2026
Penelope smiled at their eagerness to go to town; she hoped they would be as cheerful about traveling all the way to Heathcote, a far longer and more exhausting trip.
From "The Interrupted Tale" by Maryrose Wood
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
