avidity

[uh-vid-i-tee]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR avidity ON THESAURUS.COM

noun

eagerness; greediness.

enthusiasm or dedication.

Origin of avidity

1400–50; late Middle English avidite < Middle French < Latin aviditās. See avid, -ity

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for avidity

longing, avarice, cupidity, fervor, enthusiasm, greediness

Examples from the Web for avidity

Contemporary Examples of avidity

If his avidity was an act, Brooks should immediately move to Hollywood and collect his Academy Awards.
I'm Not Country or Pop. I'm Just Pure Garth Brooks.
David Masciotra
September 10, 2014

Historical Examples of avidity

It was upon this last point that I seized with most avidity.
The Conquest of Fear
Basil King
At 'beautiful Vienne,' Martial boasted that his works were read with avidity.
The Roof of France
Matilda 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.
Imogen
William Godwin
Their disunion, the consequence of their avidity, saved it from ruin, but not from pillage.
Memoirs of the Court of St. Cloud, Complete
Lewis Goldsmith

British Dictionary definitions for avidity

avidity

noun

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

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

mid-15c., "eagerness, zeal," from Old French avidite "avidity, greed," from Latin aviditatem (nominative aviditas) "eagerness, avidity," noun of quality from avidus (see avid).