voracious
adjective
Did you know?
Voracious is one of several English words that come from the Latin verb vorare, which means "to eat greedily" or "to devour." Vorare is also an ancestor of devour and of the -ivorous words that describe the diets of various creatures. These include carnivorous ("meat-eating"), herbivorous ("plant-eating"), omnivorous ("feeding on both animals and plants"), frugivorous ("fruit-eating"), graminivorous ("feeding on grass"), and piscivorous ("fish-eating").
Did you know?
Veracious or voracious?
Take care to distinguish between the near-homophones veracious and voracious, whose similarities in sound mask utterly different meanings. Veracious (“honest, truthful”), like its cousins veritable, verify, and very, concerns that which is true. Voracious (”having a greedy or insatiable appetite”), on the other hand, describes the urge to consume large quantities of something, often food, books, or ideas. One way to remember the difference is that the one with the E as its second letter means "truE," and the one with the O as its second letter means "ravenOus." Not coincidentally, these adjectives have near-homophonous noun derivatives: veracity ("truthfulness") and voracity ("the quality or state of being voracious").
Examples of voracious in a Sentence
Jacques Kelly, Baltimore Sun, 21 Feb. 2026
The voracious reader said that the best books, those that brought him happiness, were not the ones that ease our way in this strange and difficult world.
—Noah Goldberg, Los Angeles Times, 16 Feb. 2026
Madrid are actually owned by 80,000 members who demand the highest standards — and are surrounded by a voracious local media who mercilessly criticise anyone who even temporarily falls short.
—The Athletic Staff, New York Times, 15 Feb. 2026
Guthrie is a voracious reader who is up to date on current events and plays mahjong, a traditional Chinese game requiring skill and strategy.
—Sarah Lapidus, AZCentral.com, 14 Feb. 2026
See All Example Sentences for voracious
Cite this Entry
“Voracious.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/voracious. Accessed 26 Feb. 2026.
Copy CitationKids Definition
voracious
adjective
