adjective
Usage
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.
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
Etymology
Origin of envious
1250–1300; Middle English < Anglo-French; Old French envieus < Latin invidiōsus invidious
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.
Mays’ Salieri is at once aghast at such loutish behavior and bitterly envious that Mozart is exceptional enough to get away with it.
From Los Angeles Times
I was envious—I wanted the same feelings of affirmation they had.
Some felt excited, even envious, at the thought of the great adventure awaiting the chosen ones.
From Literature
He loves football but says he is envious of those who don’t.
I didn’t realize it at the time, but there was also insecurity there: An American embarrassed by a rough, unsophisticated America, envious of Europe’s aristocratic polish.
Definitions 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.
