ravenous

ravenous — adjective

1. feeling so hungry that you need or want food immediately and could eat a large a

1.adjectiveB2
Definition

feeling so hungry that you need or want food immediately and could eat a large amount

Example

After the eight-hour hike, Min was ravenous and ate three bowls of rice.

predicative: be + ravenous after [activity]

The ravenous stray cat finished the entire bowl of milk in a single minute.

attributive: ravenous + noun (animal)

Common collocations
  • ravenous appetite
  • ravenous beast
  • feel ravenous
  • look ravenous
  • absolutely ravenous
Synonyms
  • starving

    Much more common in everyday speech; less formal than ravenous

  • famished

    Slightly informal or old-fashioned; often used for dramatic effect

  • voracious

    More formal, emphasizes eating large quantities quickly rather than just feeling hungry

Antonyms
  • full

    Everyday word for the opposite of hungry

  • sated

    Formal; means completely satisfied after eating

Grammar Patterns

be / feel / look + ravenous

ravenous + noun

Usage Note

Stronger degree of hunger than hungry or starving. Frequently used after physical activity or a long gap between meals. Works both attributively (a ravenous animal) and predicatively (I am ravenous).

Common Mistakes

I am very ravenous after the workout.
I am absolutely ravenous after the workout.
Ravenous is already an extreme adjective, so intensifiers like 'very' sound unnatural; use 'absolutely' or 'completely' instead.

❌ 'The children were ravenous and asked for snacks.' (correct grammar but weak context) — The word ravenous fits best when the hunger is linked to a specific cause such as exercise, fasting, or waiting.

2. having a very strong and eager desire for something, especially something non-ph

2.adjectiveB2
Definition

having a very strong and eager desire for something, especially something non-physical such as success, knowledge, or entertainment

Example

Eric was ravenous for news about the job interview and checked his inbox every hour.

ravenous for [news / information]

The young novelist had a ravenous desire to see her book published before the summer.

attributive: ravenous desire

Common collocations
  • ravenous for success
  • ravenous for knowledge
  • ravenous for attention
  • ravenous desire
  • ravenous curiosity
  • ravenous hunger for
Synonyms
  • eager

    Broader and less intense than ravenous; very common across all registers

  • avid

    More formal, often used for hobbies or interests (an avid reader)

  • insatiable

    Even stronger than ravenous; suggests a desire that cannot be satisfied no matter how much one gets

Antonyms
  • satisfied

    The opposite of having an eager desire; one's needs are met

  • indifferent

    Not caring about or interested in something

Grammar Patterns

be + ravenous + for + [something]

ravenous + desire / hunger / curiosity / appetite

Usage Note

Always followed by a prepositional phrase (ravenous for something) when used predicatively, or placed before an abstract noun (ravenous curiosity, ravenous desire) when used attributively. The object of desire is typically non-physical — success, knowledge, attention, entertainment — rather than food, which belongs to sense 1.

Common Mistakes

She was ravenous a new challenge after finishing her degree.
She was ravenous for a new challenge after finishing her degree.
The preposition for is required when ravenous is used predicatively to express desire for something.
He had a ravenous hunger for food.
He had a ravenous hunger for knowledge.
For literal food hunger, use sense 1 (extremely hungry). Sense 2 is for figurative, non-physical desires.

Word family

  • ravenously
    adverbB2
  • ravenousness
    nounC1

Synonym discussion

Sense: adjective/1

All four words describe strong hunger, but they differ in intensity, formality, and focus. Ravenous is a mid-range formal word that means extremely hungry, often after physical exertion or a long gap between meals — it carries a sense of urgent need. Starving is the most common and informal option, used in everyday speech to mean very hungry, though its literal meaning is dying from lack of food. Famished is less common and slightly old-fashioned, often used for dramatic emphasis. Voracious focuses less on the feeling of hunger and more on the act of eating large amounts quickly — a voracious reader finishes books rapidly, while a voracious eater consumes huge quantities. For example: after a long hike, Min was ravenous; the children said they were starving before dinner; Grandpa declared he was famished after a morning of gardening; and Théo, a voracious eater, finished his plate in under two minutes.

ravenous ↗starvingfamishedvoracious

Common collocations

Adverbs

Phrases

  • ravenous appetite
  • ravenous hunger

Etymology

LatinOld FrenchEnglish

Ravenous comes from the Latin word rapina, meaning 'plunder' or 'robbery', which also gave us the word ravine (a deep channel supposedly carved by rushing floodwaters). It entered English through Old French ravineus in the 14th century. Originally it meant 'greedy, rapacious' in a general sense, and by the 15th century it had narrowed to focus specifically on extreme hunger for food. The figurative use — being ravenous for success or knowledge — appeared later as a natural extension of the idea of greedy desire.