Word.ws English Dictionary

coveted

/ˈkʌvɪtɪd/

coveted is the simple past and past participle of covet.

Meaning of covet

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)

Adjective

coveted (comparative more coveted, superlative most coveted)

  1. Highly sought-after.

Forms of coveted

comparativemore coveted
superlativemost coveted

Words formed from coveted

Questions about coveted

What does coveted mean?
Coveted means highly sought-after.
What is coveted the simple past and past participle of?
Coveted is the simple past and past participle of covet.
What part of speech is coveted?
Coveted is an adjective.
How do you pronounce coveted?
Coveted is pronounced /ˈkʌvɪtɪd/.

Words near coveted in the dictionary

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

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: coveted (page history and authors); covet (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-coveted.wav, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Knabrupt-coveted.wav.

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