avidity
[uh-vid-i-tee]
- eagerness; greediness.
- enthusiasm or dedication.
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Origin of avidity
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for avidity
Contemporary Examples
If his avidity was an act, Brooks should immediately move to Hollywood and collect his Academy Awards.
Historical Examples
It was upon this last point that I seized with most avidity.
The Conquest of FearBasil King
At 'beautiful Vienne,' Martial boasted that his works were read with avidity.
The Roof of FranceMatilda Betham-Edwards
They will be read with avidity in the North and in the South, and throughout Europe.
The Works of Whittier, Volume VII (of VII)John Greenleaf Whittier
Roderic surveyed his victim with an eye of avidity and triumph.
ImogenWilliam Godwin
Their disunion, the consequence of their avidity, saved it from ruin, but not from pillage.
Memoirs of the Court of St. Cloud, CompleteLewis Goldsmith
avidity
- the quality or state of being avid
- eagerness
- greed; avarice
- chem
- the strength of an acid or base in proportion to its degree of dissociation
- another term for affinity (def. 6b)
- immunol a measure of antigen-to-antibody binding, based on the rate of formation of the complex
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Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for avidity
n.
mid-15c., "eagerness, zeal," from Old French avidite "avidity, greed," from Latin aviditatem (nominative aviditas) "eagerness, avidity," noun of quality from avidus (see avid).
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper