envy

Reading level: hard

Estimated CEFR level: B1 — Intermediate

Estimated from word frequency; not an official CEFR classification.

Definition

  1. noun a feeling of grudging admiration and desire to have something that is possessed by another
  2. noun spite and resentment at seeing the success of another (personified as one of the deadly sins)
  3. verb feel envious towards; admire enviously

Etymology

From Middle English envie, from Old French envie, from Latin invidia (“envy”), from invidere (“to look at with malice”), from in- (“on, upon”) + videre (“to look, see”). Doublet of envie. Cognate to Proto-Slavic *zavistь (“envy”). Displaced native Old English æfest and Old English nīþ.

In classic literature

Synonyms

enviousness

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