Spelling.School · How to spell

How to spell envious

Envious is spelled E-N-V-I-O-U-S.

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.

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.”

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