greedy

American  

[gree-dee] / ˈgri di /

adjective

greedier, greediest

1. excessively or inordinately desirous of wealth, profit, etc..

   The greedy owners of the company paid their employees too little and charged their customers too much.

   Synonyms:

   selfish, rapacious, grasping

   Antonyms:

   unselfish, generous

2. having an excessive desire for food or drink.

   That greedy guy ate four of those brownies before anyone else got any!

   Synonyms:

   insatiable, gluttonous, voracious, ravenous

3. keenly desirous; eager (often followed by of orfor ).

   greedy for praise.

   Synonyms:

   covetous, anxious

4. requiring or using much of a specified thing (often used in combination).

   These big trucks are fuel-greedy.

   Crops that are greedy for water should not be planted in dry regions.

5. Computers.

   1. of or relating to an algorithm, search, etc., that operates one step at a time instead of checking all possible paths or solutions all at once and then selecting the one with the best overall outcome.

      A result may be achieved faster with a greedy search, but that result is not always the correct or best one.

   2. of or relating to an operator or quantifier in a search query that will return the largest match result possible.

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greedy British  

/ ˈɡriːdɪ /

adjective

1. excessively desirous of food or wealth, esp in large amounts; voracious

2. eager (for)

   a man greedy for success

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Usage

What does greedy mean? Greedy means filled with greed—an excessive desire for more, especially for more money and possessions. It can be used to describe people, as in greedy billionaires, or actions that are based on greed, as in It was a greedy scheme to squeeze more money out of people.  Greed and greedy are always used negatively to criticize the excessive desire for more. Greed is often thought to influence people to do bad things in their obsession to acquire more money or more stuff. In the expression “the love of money is the root of all evil,” the love of money is another way of saying being greedy. Less commonly, greedy can mean the same thing as gluttonous—having an excessive desire for food. Example: These greedy hedge fund managers have more money than they can spend in a lifetime, yet they insist on trying to get away with paying the least amount of taxes possible.

Related Words

See avaricious, greed.

Other Word Forms

• greedily adverb
• greediness noun
• nongreedy adjective
• overgreedily adverb
• overgreediness noun
• overgreedy adjective
• ungreedy adjective

Etymology

Origin of greedy

First recorded before 900; Middle English gredy, Old English grædig; cognate with Old Norse grāthugr, Gothic gredags

Explanation

Being greedy means you want more and more of something, especially money. But you can be greedy for just about anything, including food, drink, or fame. People who are greedy are a little too interested in having something. Usually, that something is money. Rich people who keep trying to get more and more money are often accused by being greedy. A gluttonous person is greedy for food. If you're obsessed with something and can't get enough of it, you're greedy for it. This is a word for extreme, grasping, devouring behavior.

Example Sentences

It was Warren Buffett who said one should be greedy when others are fearful.

From MarketWatch • Apr. 12, 2026

Heed the Oracle of Omaha: “Be fearful when others are greedy, and greedy when others are fearful.”

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 9, 2026

But I’ve tackled enough of it to inform you that, sadly, ignoring Charles Schwab or J. P. Morgan Chase will not make the ghosts of these greedy American business magnates go away.

From Salon • Mar. 24, 2026

Sean O'Brien, president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, one of the country's biggest unions, verbally attacked Mullin at a 2023 hearing, calling him a "greedy CEO who pretends like he's self-made".

From BBC • Mar. 18, 2026

These and hundreds more were collected in the American woods, shipped across the ocean to England and France and Russia, and received with greedy keenness and trembling fingers.

From "A Walk in the Woods" by Bill Bryson

Related Words

• eager
• hungry
• impatient
• rapacious
• selfish