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Greed vs Ambitious - What's the difference?

greed | ambitious |

As a noun greed

is a selfish or excessive desire for more than is needed or deserved, especially of money, wealth, food, or other possessions.

As an adjective ambitious is

possessing, or controlled by ambition; greatly or inordinately desirous of power, honor, office, superiority, or distinction.

greed

English

Noun

  • A selfish or excessive desire for more than is needed or deserved, especially of money, wealth, food, or other possessions.
  • His greed was his undoing.
    What drove them was their ambition, their greed for power.

    Synonyms

    * (selfish desire for more than is needed) avarice, covetousness, greediness, rapacity * See also * (desire for food) gluttony

    Derived terms

    * greedily * greediness * greedy

    Anagrams

    *

    ambitious

    English

    Adjective

    (en-adj)
  • Possessing, or controlled by ambition; greatly or inordinately desirous of power, honor, office, superiority, or distinction.
  • * 1891 , , "The Man with the Twisted Lip,"
  • As I grew richer I grew more ambitious , took a house in the country, and eventually married, without anyone having a suspicion as to my real occupation.
  • Strongly desirous—followed by "of" or the infinitive; as, ambitious to be or to do something.
  • Springing from, characterized by, or indicating, ambition; showy; aspiring.
  • Hard to achieve.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-01, volume=407, issue=8838
  • , page=13 (Technology Quarterly), magazine=(The Economist) , title= Ideas coming down the track , passage=A “moving platform” scheme

    Usage notes

    * Said of people, projects, plans, goals, etc.

    Derived terms

    * ambitiously * ambitiousness * overambitious

    References

    * * * * * " ambitious" in the Wordsmyth Dictionary-Thesaurus (Wordsmyth, 2002) * " ambitious" in Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary (Cambridge University Press, 2007) * " ambitious" in Compact Oxford English Dictionary , (Oxford University Press, 2007)