Word
greedy
US/ˈɡɹidi/
UK/ɡɹˈiːdi/
Definitions
01wanting wealth or power
B1 · Intermediate
adj. wanting more money, power, or things than you actually need.
adj. having or showing an intense and selfish desire for wealth, power, or status.
“The greedy businessman didn't care if his workers were poor as long as he made a profit.”
“The novel depicts a greedy landlord who prioritises his quarterly dividends over the basic safety and well-being of his tenants.”
Antonyms
02wanting too much food
B1 · Intermediate
adj. wanting to eat more food than you need or eating very quickly so others get less.
adj. having an excessive appetite for food; gluttonous.
“Don't be greedy and eat all the cookies before the guests arrive.”
“He felt embarrassed by his greedy behaviour at the buffet, having piled his plate high before the rest of the party had been served.”
Synonyms
Antonyms
03computing/algorithms
C1 · Advanced Computing Technical
adj. describing a way of solving a problem by always picking the best choice right now.
adj. relating to an algorithm that makes the locally optimal choice at each stage with the hope of finding a global optimum.
“A greedy algorithm might find a solution quickly, but it isn't always the best one.”
“While the greedy approach is computationally efficient for the change-making problem, it fails to produce an optimal result for certain non-standard currency systems.”
04matching text
C2 · Proficiency Computing Technical
adj. in computer searches, matching the longest possible piece of text.
adj. describing a regular expression quantifier that matches as many characters as possible.
“The search was too greedy and highlighted the whole paragraph instead of just one word.”
“By default, the star operator is greedy, meaning it will consume the entire string unless a question mark is added to make it lazy.”
Antonyms
Etymology
From Middle English gredy, from Anglian Old English grēdiġ (“greedy, hungry, eager”) (cognate West Saxon form grǣdiġ), from Proto-Germanic grēdagaz (“hungry”), from Proto-Germanic grēdaz, grēduz, grēdô (“hunger”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʰer-. Equivalent to greed + -y. Cognate with Old Saxon grādag (“greedy”), Dutch graag (“gladly, willingly”), Old High German grātag (“greedy”), Danish grådig (“greedy”), Norwegian Bokmål grådig (“greedy”) (from Old Norse gráðigr (“greedy”), gráði (“greed, hunger”)), Gothic 𐌲𐍂𐌴𐌳𐌰𐌲𐍃 (grēdags, “hungry”). Sanskrit गृद्धि (gṛddhi, “greed”) is a false cognate.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Word family
NOUN
ADJECTIVE
- Exam level
- CambridgeCambridgeCambridge English QualificationsThe exam suite from Cambridge University Press & Assessment, from A1 Movers up to C2 Proficiency. The benchmark names double as CEFR labels.B1 PreliminaryIELTSIELTSInternational English Language Testing SystemThe 0–9 band test co-owned by the British Council, IDP, and Cambridge. Used for university entry, work, and migration.4.0–5.0TOEFL iBTTOEFL iBTTest of English as a Foreign Language, Internet-Based TestETS's academic English test, the standard route for US university admissions. Scored 0–120, with a 1–6 scale since 2026.1–6 scale: 3.0–3.544–71TOEICTOEICTest of English for International CommunicationETS's workplace English test, big in Japan and Korea. Listening & Reading scores 10–990 and tops out at C1.550–784
- Frequency
- Frequent
- Level
- B1 · Intermediate
- Updated
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