Home US English pleonexia

Definition of pleonexia in English:

pleonexia

noun

rare

  • Extreme greed for wealth or material possessions; avarice.

    ‘He portrays them as deeply divided, because their pleonexia leaves them dissatisfied and full of self-hatred.’
    • ‘Because we stand to lose more than we could gain from unbridled pleonexia we have entered into a compact neither to do nor to allow injustice.’
    • ‘He presents pleonexia as a first principle of human nature.’
    • ‘Pleonexia is associated with the rational part of the soul.’
    • ‘When a man has pleonexia in his heart he loses sight of God in a mad desire to get.’
    avarice, greediness, acquisitiveness, covetousness, rapacity, graspingness, cupidity, avidity, possessiveness, materialism

Pronunciation

pleonexia

/ˌplēəˈneksēə/ /ˌpliəˈnɛksiə/

Origin

Mid 19th century Greek, from pleonektein ‘be greedy’, from pleiōn ‘more’ + ekhein ‘have’.