envious

[en-vee-uhs]

adjective

1. full of, feeling, or expressing envy.

   envious of a person's success; an envious attack.

   Synonyms: covetous, jealous, resentful

2. Archaic.

   1. emulous.

   2. enviable.

envious

/ ˈɛnvɪəs /

adjective

1. feeling, showing, or resulting from envy

Other Word Forms

• enviously adverb
• enviousness noun
• nonenvious adjective
• nonenviously adverb
• nonenviousness noun
• overenvious adjective
• overenviously adverb
• overenviousness noun
• quasi-envious adjective
• quasi-enviously adverb
• unenvious adjective
• unenviously adverb

Word History and Origins

Origin of envious¹

1250–1300; Middle English < Anglo-French; Old French envieus < Latin invidiōsus invidious

Word History and Origins

Origin of envious¹

C13: from Anglo-Norman, ultimately from Latin invidiōsus full of envy, _invidious ; see _envy

Example Sentences

Oddly, as Mike Burry’s investors grew restive, his Wall Street counterparties took a new and envious interest in what he was up to.

Read more on Literature

Today he has a Rolodex of A-list directors that would make many talent agents envious.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

She and her friends were wearing hijabs and, she says, Uyghur food vendors had approached them saying they were "envious we could freely wear our hijabs... but we didn't get to have very deep conversations".

Read more on BBC

And it will soon start educating travelers on the new boarding drill that is designed to keep things flowing and maintain the airline’s envious flight-turnaround times.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

"They are envious of China's fast development. To be honest, they are aggressive at heart. We are completely committed to the common prosperity of mankind. We are different."

Read more on BBC

Related Words

• distrustful 
• greedy 
• suspicious 
• watchful 

When To Use

What does envious mean?

Envious means feeling, full of, or expressing envy—a mostly negative feeling of desire for something that someone else has and you do not.Envy is not a good feeling—it can be described as a mix of admiration and discontent. But it’s not necessarily malicious. Envious is very similar in meaning to jealous. However, jealous usually implies a deeper resentment, perhaps because you feel that you deserve the thing more than the other person, or that it is unfair that they have it.Envious is often followed by the word of and the person or thing that’s the object of envy, as in I must admit that I’m envious of her talent. Example: Other people’s perfectly curated social media feeds often cause us to feel envious, but we need to keep in mind that they don’t show the whole story of what someone’s life is like—only the highlights.