Word.ws English Dictionary

covet

/ˈkʌvɪt/

covet verb: to wish for with eagerness; to desire possession of, often enviously.

Verb

covet (third-person singular simple present covets, present participle coveting, simple past and past participle coveted)

  1. (transitive) To wish for with eagerness; to desire possession of, often enviously.
    • What Netflix really covets is closer to its current competencies: WBD's “intellectual property”, or in plain English, franchises such as Harry Potter, Game of Thrones, Friends, pictured, and The Sopranos.2025 December 6, “Netflix’s WBD deal swaps history for fantasy”, in FT Weekend (Lex section), London: The Financial Times Ltd., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 24
  2. (transitive) To long for inordinately or unlawfully; to hanker after (something forbidden).
  3. (intransitive) To yearn; to have or indulge an inordinate desire, especially for another's possession.
    • No! He covets. That is his nature. And how do we begin to covet, Clarice? Do we seek out things to covet? Make an effort to answer now.1991, Ted Tally, The Silence of the Lambs (motion picture), spoken by Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins)

covet meaning in Tamil, Marathi, Urdu and Bengali

covet in Tamil

நாட்டங்கொள், ஆசைப்படு, மிகவேண்டு

covet in Marathi

to wish for with eagerness
अभिलाषणे abhilāṣṇe, लालचणे lālacṇe, लालचावणे lālcāvṇe, लालुचणे lālucṇe

covet in Urdu

حرص کرنا, لالچ کرنا, پاؤں پھیلانا

covet in Bengali

লালসা
More languagesFewer languages
covet in Malayalam
കൊതിക്കുക kotikkuka
covet in Sanskrit
गृध्यति gṛdhyati
covet in Tagalog
imbutin
covet in Arabic
طَمُعَ ṭamuʕa, طَمِعَ ṭamiʕa, جَشِعَ jašiʕa
covet in Myanmar
မက် mak

Examples of covet in a sentence

  • Yes, it certainly is—and so, for that matter, is coveting thy neighbor's wife.
  • Grandees must covet condos, since they let bids rip, And "spaces" measured footmeal now reach record tops.
  • Reporters covet standups rather than the voiceover narration of news footage because it puts their faces on the air.

All 11 example sentences with covet

Synonyms of covet

Forms of covet

third-person singular presentcovets
present participlecoveting
past participlecoveted
pastcoveted

Past tense of covet: coveted

Origin of covet

From Middle English coveten, coveiten, coveyten, from Old French covoitier (modern French convoiter), from covoitié (“desire”), presumably modified from Latin cupiditas.

Words formed from covet

Questions about covet

What does covet mean?
Covet means to wish for with eagerness; to desire possession of, often enviously.
What is covet in Tamil?
Covet in Tamil is நாட்டங்கொள், ஆசைப்படு, மிகவேண்டு. See Covet meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is covet?
Covet is a verb.
How do you pronounce covet?
Covet is pronounced /ˈkʌvɪt/.
What is the past tense of covet?
The past tense of covet is coveted.

Words near covet in the dictionary

  1. coverups
  2. covery
  3. coves
  4. covess
  5. covesses
  6. covet
  7. covetable
  8. coveted
  9. covetedness
  10. coveteousness
  11. coveter

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: covet (page history and authors); covet (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); covet (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); covet (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-covet.wav.

Cite this entry: “covet.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/covet. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.