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

/ vɒˈræsɪtɪ, vɒˈreɪʃəs /

adjective

1. devouring or craving food in great quantities

2. very eager or unremitting in some activity

   voracious reading

Other Word Forms

• voraciously adverb
• voraciousness noun
• unvoracious adjective
• unvoraciousness noun
• voracity 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

Tom Hibbert advises us to "be good to ladybirds as they are both beautiful and the gardeners' friend, keeping numbers of plant sucking bugs like aphids in check as they are voracious carnivores."

Read more on BBC

That critique assumes great masses of voters devour campaign memoirs with the same voracious appetite as those who surrender their Sundays to the Beltway chat shows, or mainline political news like a continuous IV drip.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Combine “There Will Be Blood’s” voracious oil baron and “The Master’s” manipulative spiritual guru with this movie’s America-first nativists and you have Anderson’s unholy trinity of characters who have corrupted our founders’ ideals.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

But such calls for calm and moderation have been met with voracious pushback.

Read more on Salon

A voracious reader, Naidorf was especially fond of science magazines and pondering the cosmos.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Related Words

• avid 
• insatiable 
• prodigious 
• rapacious 
• ravenous