rapacity
- noun
- /rəˈpæsɪti/
- Specialized
:
predación
- The eagle's rapacity makes it a skilled hunter, often swooping down to catch unsuspecting rabbits.
Examples
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The shark's rapacity in the ocean is unmatched, as it hunts relentlessly for smaller fish.
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Many predatory species exhibit rapacity to ensure their survival in the wild, relying on speed and stealth.
-
This was a creature of enormous violence and absolute rapacity, capable of tearing its prey to pieces, and I wanted to suggest that those sorts of implicit violent energies were now swirling about this old country house.
Blog text (5)
Synonyms
A habit of hunting and eating other live animals
Hunting and eating other animals for food
Antonyms
How Predatory
Surface Forms
Morphology
rapacity = rapacious (semi-transparent) = rapac + ity
The morphological formation is the same as the general sense (rapacious + -ity), but the specific sense 'relating to predation' is a somewhat specialized usage that may not be predictable from the base for all learners.
Etymology
Rapacity comes from the Latin words rapax and rapere, which mean 'to seize'. It is the same root found in raptor (a bird that seizes prey), so rapacity can mean the behavior of animals that take live prey, like hawks and eagles.