Word.ws English Dictionary

coveting

coveting is the present participle and gerund 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)

Noun

coveting (plural covetings)

  1. The act of one who covets.
    • In the meantime, by the light of this discourse, we clearly see why God so highly prizeth zealous covetings and desires in men after spiritual things […]1867, John Goodwin, Pleroma to Pneumatikon

Forms of coveting

pluralcovetings

Questions about coveting

What does coveting mean?
Coveting means the act of one who covets.
What is coveting the present participle and gerund of?
Coveting is the present participle and gerund of covet.
What part of speech is coveting?
Coveting is a noun.
What is the plural of coveting?
The plural of coveting is covetings.

Words near coveting in the dictionary

  1. coveter
  2. coveters
  3. covetess
  4. covetest
  5. coveteth
  6. coveting
  7. covetingly
  8. covetings
  9. covetious
  10. covetise
  11. covetive

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: coveting (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.

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