How to spell envious

hear iten·vi·ous/'ɛnviəs/adjectiveSchwa and roots

What it means: Feeling a desire for what someone else has.

In a sentence: The little cat felt envious of the big cat's fluffy tail.

The part people get wrong

Watch for an unstressed vowel that is hard to hear. Often misspelled as envyous or envius.

Same family: enviousness, enviable, envied, envying, jealous. If you can spell one, the shared part carries to the others.

Where it comes from: “Envious” comes from the Latin word *invidere*, which literally means “to look against” or “to look at with hatred.” Over time, it developed into Old French *envie* and then Middle English *envie*, giving us both “envy” and “envious.”

Patterns it uses: The unstressed vowel (schwa)

Try spelling it

You will hear the word and a sentence. Type it and press Enter. Then four more words from the same level, so you know where you stand.

Words like this

ambitious · ingenious · industrious · mysterious · generous · religious · glorious · ruinous

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