Synonyms for jealous
- adjective
Most common
envious covetous suspicious green-eyed overjealous distrustful
Synonyms by meaning
Adjective
1. Envious — envious; feeling resentful or angered toward someone for a perceived advantage or success, material or…
envious, covetous, suspicious, invidious dated
2. Green-eyed
3. Distrustful
Definitions
- adj. 1
Envious; feeling resentful or angered toward someone for a perceived advantage or success, material or otherwise.
be jealous of someone/something
- adj. 2
Suspecting rivalry in love; troubled by worries that one might have been replaced in someone's affections; suspicious of a lover's or spouse's fidelity.
She gave him a jealous look.
- adj. 3
Protective; zealously guarding; careful in the protection of something (or someone) one has or appreciates, especially one's spouse or lover.
Related words
- Word family
- jealously jealousness jealousy
Choose the right word
A person is envious of that which is another's, and to which he himself has no right or claim; he is jealous of intrusion upon that which is his own, or to which he maintains a right or claim. An envious spirit is always bad; a jealous spirit may be good or bad, according to its object and tendency.
J. C. Fernald, English Synonyms and Antonyms (1914)
Example sentences
- suspicious A policeman was gazing at a suspicious pedestrian.
- envious Even the tail of the parrot makes others envious.
- covetous A covetous man is good to none and worst to himself.
- distrustful I was distrustful of his motives.
Popularity over time
| Word | 1850 → 2019 | Trend |
|---|---|---|
| jealous | rising | |
| suspicious | rising | |
| envious | rising | |
| covetous | steady |
Use in printed books, per decade from 1850 to 2019.
By length
- 7 letters
- anxious2, envious3
- 8 letters
- watchful2, covetous
- 9 letters
- resentful3, invidious4
- 10 letters
- suspicious3
- 11 letters
- distrustful3, overjealous
The small number after each word is its number of syllables (anxious2 = 2 syllables).
In other languages
- Français
- jaloux
- Italiano
- geloso
- Español
- celoso
- Deutsch
- missgünstig
- Català
- gelós