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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

jealous.

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.

7 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

adj/ˈd͡ʒɛl.əs/Canada, General-American, Received-Pronunciation/ˈd͡ʒel.əs/Australia, New-Zealand
  1. 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.

    jealous lover
    She gave him a jealous look.
  2. Protective; zealously guarding; careful in the protection of something (or someone) one has or appreciates, especially one's spouse or lover.

  3. Envious; feeling resentful or angered toward someone for a perceived advantage or success, material or otherwise.

    be jealous of someone/something
    He was jealous of his friend’s success.
  4. Suspicious; apprehensive.

Where this word comes from

First attested in 1382. From Middle English jelous, gelous, gelus, from Old French jalous, from Late Latin zelosus, from Ancient Greek ζῆλος (zêlos, “zeal, jealousy”). Doublet of zealous.

verb/ˈd͡ʒɛl.əs/Canada, General-American, Received-Pronunciation/ˈd͡ʒel.əs/Australia, New-Zealand
  1. To harass or attack (somebody) out of jealousy.

    ambitransitive · slang
  2. To deliberately make (someone) jealous of another person's (often their partner's) associations with other people.

    transitive
Where this word comes from

First attested in 1382. From Middle English jelous, gelous, gelus, from Old French jalous, from Late Latin zelosus, from Ancient Greek ζῆλος (zêlos, “zeal, jealousy”). Doublet of zealous.

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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.