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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

eager.

Desirous; keen to do or obtain something.

5 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

adj/ˈiɡɚ/General-American/ˈiːɡə/Received-Pronunciation/ˈɪɡɚ/US, dialectal/ˈɪɡə/US, dialectal
  1. Desirous; keen to do or obtain something.

    Stacey is very eager to go cycling this weekend.
    The hounds were eager in the chase.
  2. Not employing lazy evaluation; calculating results immediately, rather than deferring calculation until they are required.

    an eager algorithm
  3. Brittle; inflexible; not ductile.

    dated
  4. Sharp; sour; acid.

    obsolete
  5. Sharp; keen; bitter; severe.

    figuratively · obsolete
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₂eḱ- Proto-Indo-European *-rós Proto-Indo-European *h₂eḱrós Proto-Italic *akris Classical Latin ācer Late Latin ācrus Old French aigrebor. Middle English egre English eager Inherited from Middle English egre, eger, from Old French aigre, egre (modern French aigre), from Latin ācrus, variant of ācer (“sharp, keen”); see acid, acerb, etc. Compare vinegar, alegar.

verb/ˈiɡɚ/General-American/ˈiːɡə/Received-Pronunciation/ˈɪɡɚ/US, dialectal/ˈɪɡə/US, dialectal
  1. To be or become eager.

    intransitive
  2. To express eagerness.

    intransitive
  3. To make or encourage to be eager

    transitive
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₂eḱ- Proto-Indo-European *-rós Proto-Indo-European *h₂eḱrós Proto-Italic *akris Classical Latin ācer Late Latin ācrus Old French aigrebor. Middle English egre English eager Inherited from Middle English egre, eger, from Old French aigre, egre (modern French aigre), from Latin ācrus, variant of ācer (“sharp, keen”); see acid, acerb, etc. Compare vinegar, alegar.

noun/ˈiɡɚ/General-American/ˈiːɡə/Received-Pronunciation/ˈɪɡɚ/US, dialectal/ˈɪɡə/US, dialectal
  1. Alternative form of eagre (“tidal bor”).

    alt-of · alternative
Where this word comes from

See eagre.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.