Jealous Meaning
/ˈd͡ʒɛ.ləs/Definition, CEFR level B1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
adjSuspecting 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.
adjProtective; zealously guarding; careful in the protection of something (or someone) one has or appreciates, especially one's spouse or lover.
Sentence Examples
The other girls are jealous of Lily because she is extremely pretty.
Everybody was jealous of my success.
Mr Brown is jealous of his colleague's success.
CEFR Practice Quiz
She felt very ____ when her best friend received the award she wanted.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The young boy felt ____ of his older brother, who got a new bicycle for his tenth birthday.
Word Origin & History
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.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"She stopped, and laid her hand upon his golden head, and then bent down and kissed his brow with a chastened abandonment of tenderness that would have been beautiful to behold had not the sight cut me to the heart - for I was jealous!"
— 1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:
"Thou ſhalt not bow downe thy ſelfe to them, nor ſerue them: For I the Lord thy God am a iealous God, viſiting the iniquitie of the fathers vpon the children, vnto the thirde and fourth generation of them that hate me:"
— 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Exodus 20:5, column 2:
"Soft Simon had reduced himself to the lowest class of Stalkos, or walking gentlemen, as they are termed; men who have nothing to do, and no fortune to support them, but who style themselves esquire; and who […] are jealous of that title, and of their claims to family antiquity."
— 1805, Maria Edgeworth, Popular Tales, volume 2, page 148:
"I am jealous of everything whose beauty does not die."
— 1891, Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray:
"The neighbouring towns were jealous of this honourable supremacy."
— 1899, Mark Twain, The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg:
Explore More B1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
She felt very ____ when her best friend received the award she wanted.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The young boy felt ____ of his older brother, who got a new bicycle for his tenth birthday.