avarice
extreme greed for wealth or material gain
Word origin: From Latin avaritia, greed, from avere to crave.
Avarice in a sentence
Here are example sentences showing avarice in a sentence.
His avarice drove him to cheat even his closest friends.
The novel portrays the merchant's avarice as the flaw that ultimately destroys his family.
Quick GRE check
3 questions, about 2 minutes. How would you do on the real test?
Verbal · Sentence Equivalence
Far from being the revolutionary thinker his admirers claimed, the philosopher was in fact quite blank, defending the traditional doctrines of his teachers without challenge.
Using “avarice” well
Avarice denotes extreme, insatiable greed for wealth, a strongly negative and often moralizing term. It is more formal and condemnatory than ordinary greed.
More GRE words starting with A
to lower in rank, dignity, or self-respect
to make someone feel embarrassed or ashamed
to lessen in intensity or amount
to formally give up power or responsibility
departing from what is normal or expected
a departure from what is normal, usual, or expected
a state of temporary suspension or inactivity
to regard with strong disgust or hatred
Questions about “avarice”
See these words the way the GRE tests them.
Take the free 39-minute GRE Quick Mock Test and meet words like this inside real Text Completion and Sentence Equivalence questions, with a worked solution for every answer.