Havelock EllisScott Buchanan
Did you know?
Zealous vs. Jealous
Zealous and jealous share not just a rhyme, but an etymology. Both words ultimately come from the Latin zelus “jealousy,” and in the past their meanings were somewhat closer to each other than they are today. In the 16th and 17th centuries, zealous occasionally was used in biblical writing to refer to a quality of apprehensiveness or jealousy of another. By the 18th century, however, it had completely diverged in meaning from jealous, signifying “warmly engaged or ardent on behalf of someone or something.” Today, zealous often carries a connotation of excessive feeling: it typically means “fiercely partisan” or “uncompromisingly enthusiastic.”
Examples of jealous in a Sentence
Jenna Ryu, SELF, 1 Nov. 2024
He was arrested in Santo Domingo in 2023 on suspicion of attacking two music producers, with TMZ reporting at the time that Hernandez was allegedly jealous of the producers for spending time with his then-girlfriend, the Dominican rapper and singer Yailin La Más Viral.
—Charisma Madarang, Rolling Stone, 29 Oct. 2024
Martini Todd Wallace — a cameo that admittedly made Bialik a bit jealous.
—EW.com, 21 Oct. 2024
Allie: This whole dynamic started to change where one of them always seemed to be the odd man out or was jealous.
—Peter Van Sant, CBS News, 19 Oct. 2024
See all Example Sentences for jealous 
Dictionary Entries Near jealous
Cite this Entry
“Jealous.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/jealous. Accessed 22 Nov. 2024.
Copy Citation
Share