Word
欲深い
Meaning in Englishgreedy
Animated kanji stroke order
Word context
What it means
What does 欲深い mean? It denotes a person whose desires are deeply rooted and insatiable, indicating a strong, often negative, craving for wealth, status, or pleasures.
Main meanings
- Greedy or insatiable in pursuing desires
- Figuratively used for ambitions or appetites beyond needs
- Conveys a moral judgment about a person's character
How to use it
Used in formal, literary, or critical contexts to describe someone with excessive desires; typically conveys a negative appraisal and is more common in writing than casual speech; can appear in statements like 欲深い人は注意が必要だ.
Variants and close terms
- 貪欲な (どんよくな, donyoku na) — greedy
- 強欲な (ごうよくな, gouyoku na) — avaricious
- 欲張り (よくばり, yokubari) — greedy person
- 無欲 (むよく, muyoku) — lack of desire, ungreedy
Composition
- 欲 — desire, craving; on-yomi yoku; root meaning
- 深 — deep; relates to depth or extent of desire; used in the compound as depth of craving
- い — adjective ending that forms an i-adjective
Word class
adjective (形容詞, イ形容詞)