cupidity

cupidity, greed, rapacity, avarice are comparable when meaning intense desire for wealth or possessions.

Cupidity stresses the intensity and compelling nature of the desire and often suggests covetousness as well

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the sight of so much wealth aroused his cupidity

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the vast cupidity of business in preempting the virgin resources of California— Partington

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Greed, more than cupidity, implies a controlling passion; it suggests not strong but inordinate desire, and it commonly connotes meanness as well as covetousness

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a low, incessant, gnawing greed ... for power, for money, for destruction— White

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Rapacity implies both cupidity and actual seizing or snatching not only of what one especially desires but of anything that will satisfy one's greed for money or property; it often suggests extortion, plunder, or oppressive exactions

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the rapacity of the conquerors knew no bounds

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the woman's greed and rapacity . . . disgusted me— Thackeray

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the rapacity of the warlords— Peffer

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Avarice, although it involves the idea of cupidity and often carries a strong suggestion of rapacity, stresses that of miserliness and implies both an unwillingness to let go whatever wealth or property one has acquired and an insatiable greed for more

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such a stanchless avarice that, were I king, I should cut off the nobles for their lands, desire his jewels and this other's house: and my more-having would be as a sauce to make me hunger more— Shak.

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they scrimped and stinted and starved themselves . . . out of avarice and the will-to-power— M u mford

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Analogous words: covetousness, avariciousness, greediness, acquisitiveness (see corresponding adjectives at COVETOUS): avidity, eagerness (see corresponding adjectives at EAGER): lust, *desire