Quick Definition
πλεονεξία, ας, ἡ n.f. covetousness, avarice
Strong's Definition
avarice, i.e. (by implication) fraudulency, extortion
Derivation: from G4123 (πλεονέκτης);
KJV Usage: covetous(-ness) practices, greediness
UBS Dictionary of the Greek New Testament
noun, f. | -ας | πλεονάζω + ἔχω
25.22 · Attitudes and Emotions · Desire Strongly
greed, avarice, covetousness a strong desire to acquire more and more material possessions or to possess more things than other people have, all irrespective of need
LUK 12:15 · ROM 1:29 · EPH 4:19 · EPH 5:3 · COL 3:5 · 1TH 2:5 · 2PE 2:3 · 2PE 2:14
88.144 · Moral and Ethical Qualities and Related Behavior · Exploit
to take advantage of, to exploit, exploitation to take advantage of someone, usually as the result of a motivation of greed It is also possible to understand πλεονεξία in 2CO 9:5 as referring to ‘compulsion.’
1 2CO 9:5 Though in 2CO 9:5 one may translate μὴ ὡς πλεονεξίαν as ‘not because you are being taken advantage of,’ the meaning of πλεονεξία is essentially active and may also be rendered as ‘not because someone is exploiting you.’
UBS Dictionary of the Greek New Testament © United Bible Societies, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Thayer's Greek Lexicon
πλεονεξία, -as, 9, (πλεονέκτης, 4. V-), greedy desire to have more, covetousness, avarice: Lk. xii. 15; Ro.i. 29; Eph. iv. 19; v. 3; Col. iii. 5; 1 Th. ii. 5; 2 Pet. ii. 3, [on the om. of the art. in the last two pass. cf. W. 120 (114) ], 14; ὡς (Rec. ὥσπερ] πλεονεξίαν, [as a matter of covetousness], i.e. a gift which betrays the giver’s covetousness, 2 Co. ix. 5 [here R.V. txt. extortion]; plur. various modes in which covetousness shows itself, covetings [cf. W. § 27, 3; B. 77 (67)], Mk. vii. 29. (In the same and various other senses by pref. writ. fr. Hdt. and Thuc. down.) [ Trench, N. T. Syn. § xxiv., and (in partial correction) Bp. Lghtft. Com. on Col. iii. 5.]
Mounce Concise Greek Dictionary
πλεονεξία pleonexia 10x
some advantage which one possesses over another; an inordinate desire of riches, covetousness, Lk. 12:15; grasping, overreaching, extortion, Rom. 1:29; 1 Thess. 2:5; a gift exacted by importunity and conferred with grudging, a hard-wrung gift, 2 Cor. 9:5; a scheme of extortion, Mk. 7:22
Abbott-Smith Greek Lexicon
πλεονεξία, -ας, ἡ
(< πλεονέκτης), [in LXX for בֶּצַע;]
the character and conduct of a πλεονέκτης advantage.
desire for advantage, grasping, aggression, cupidity, covetousness: Lk 12:15, Ro 1:29, II Co 9:5, Eph 4:19 (v. ICC, in l) Eph 5:3, Col 3:5, I Th 2:5, II Pe 2:3 2:14; pl. (v. Bl., § 32, 6), Mk 7:22.†
SYN.: φιλαργυρία, avarice (v. Tr., Syn., § xxiv).
Trench — Synonyms of the New Testament
BretwrEEn these words the same distinction exists as between our ‘ covetousness’ and ‘avarice,’ as between the German ‘Habsucht’ and ‘Geiz.’ Πλεονεξία, primarily the having more, and then in a secondary and more usual G 82 SYNONYMS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. ὃ xxiv. sense, the desire after the having more, is the more active sin, φιλαργυρία the more passive: the first, the ‘amor sceleratus habendi,’ seeks rather to grasp what it has not ; the second, to retain, and, by accumulating, to multiply that which it already has. The first, in its methods of acquiring, will be often bold and aggressive; even as it may, and often will, be as free in scattering and squandering, as it was eager and unscrupulous in getting: the πλεονέκτης will be often ‘ rapti largitor,’ as was Catiline ; characterizing whom Cicero demands (Pro Owl. 6): “ Quis in rapacitate avarior? quis in largitione effusior?’ even as the same idea is very boldly conceived in the Sir Giles Overreach of Massinger. Consistently with this, we find πλεονέκτης joined with ἅρπαξ (1 Cor. v. 10); πλεονεξία with βαρύτης (Plutarch, Arist. 3); πλεονεξίαι with κλοπαί (Mark vii. 22); with ἀδικίαι (Strabo, vii. 4. 6); with diroverxias (Plato, Legg. iii. 677 b) ; and the sin defined by Theodoret (in Hp. ad Rom. i. 30): ἡ τοῦ πλείονος ἔφεσις», καὶ τῶν οὐ προσηκόντων ἡ ἁρπαγή : with which compare the definition, whosesoever it may be, of ‘avaritia’ as ‘injuriosa appetitio alienorum’ (ad Herenn. iv. 25); and compare further Bengel’s note (on Mark vii. 22) : ‘ πλεονεξία, comparativum involvens, denotat medium quiddam inter furtum et rapinam; ubi per varias artes id agitur ut alter per se, sed cum lesione sui, inscius vel invitus, . offerat, concedat et tribuat, quod indigne accipias.’ It is therefore fitly joined with αἰσχροκερδεία (Polybius, vi. 46. 3). But, while it is thus with πλεονεξία, φιλαργυρία, on the other hand, the miser’s sin (it is joined with puxpoλογία, Plutarch, Quom. Am. ab Adul. 36) will be often cautious and timid, and will not necessarily have cast off the outward shows of uprightness. The Pharisees, for example, were φιλάργυροι (Luke xvi. 14): this was not irreconcilable with the maintenance of a religious profession, which the πλεονεξία would have manifestly been. Cowley, in the delightful prose which he has interspersed among his verse, draws this distinction strongly and well (Essay 7, Of Avarice), though Chaucer had done the same before him (see his Persones Tale; and his description severally of Covetise and Avarice in The Romaunt of the Rose, 183-246). ‘There are,’ Cowley says, ‘ two sorts of avarice; the one is but of a bastard kind, and that is the rapacious appetite for gain; not for its own sake, but for the pleasure of refunding it immediately through all the channels of pride and luxury; the other is the true kind, and properly so called, which is a restless and unsatiable desire of riches, not for any further end or use, but only to hoard and preserve, and perpetually increase them. The covetous man of the first kind is like a greedy ostrich, which devours any metal, but it is with an intent to feed upon it, and, in effect, it makes a shift to digest and excern it. The second is like the foolish chough, which loves to steal money only to hide it.’ : There is another point of view in which πλεονεξία may be regarded as the larger term, the genus, of which φιλαργυρία is the species; this last being the love of money, while πλεονεξία is the drawing and snatching by the sinner to himself of the creature in every form and kind, as it lies out of and beyond himself; the ‘indigentia’ of Cicero (‘indigentia est libido inexplebilis ;’ Twsc. iv. 9. 21); compare Dio Chrysostom, De Avarit. Orat. 17; Augustine, Hnarr. in Ps. exviii. 35, 36; and Bengel’s profound explanation of the fact, that, in the enumeration of sins, St. Paul so often associates πλεονεξία with sins of the flesh ; as at 1 Cor. v, 11; Ephes. v. 3, 5 ; Col. ili. 5: ‘ Solet autem jungere cum impuritate πλεονεξίαν, nam homo extra Deum querit pabulum in creaturd materiali, vel per voluptatem, vel per avaritiam: bonum alienum ad se redigit.’ But, expressing much, Bengel has not expressed all. The connexion between these two provinces of sin is deeper and more intimate still; and this is witnessed @ 2 84 SYNONYMS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. ὃ xxv. in the fact, that not merely is πλεονεξία, as signifying covetousness, joined to sins of impurity, but the word is sometimes used, as at Ephes. v. 3 (see Jerome, in loc.), and often by the Greek Fathers (see Suicer, Thes. s. v.: and Hammond’s excellent note on Rom. i. 29), to designate these sins themselves ; even as the root out of which they alike grow, namely, the fiercer and ever fiercer longing of the creature which has forsaken God, to fill itself with the lower objects of sense, is one and the same. The monsters of lust among the Roman emperors were monsters of covetousness as well (Suetonius, Calig. 38-41). Contemplated under this aspect, πλεονεξία has a much wider and deeper sense than φιλαργυρία. Plato (Gorg. 493), likening the desire of man to the sieve or pierced vessel of the Danaids, which they were ever filling, but might never fill,| has implicitly a sublime commentary on the word; nor is it too much to say, that in it is summed up that ever defeated longing of the creature, as it has despised the children’s bread, to stay its hunger with the husks of the swine.
Moulton & Milligan — Vocabulary of the Greek NT
πλεονεξία, “ὁ σοναίοιιϑη 655, in P Par 6358 (B.c. 164) (= P Petr III. p- 24) μηδεμιᾶς ἐν τούτοις μήτε φιλοτιμίας, μήτε πλεονεξίας γενηθείσης keeps company with φιλοτιμία, which here represents a ‘‘ grasping ambition’’: cf. PSI V. 446° (A.p. 133-7) τὸ δὲ στρατ[ι]ωτικὸν ἐπὶ πλεονεξίᾳ Kal ἀδικίᾳ λαμβά[ν]εσθαι συνβέβηκε. In Musonius p. 72° (ed. Hense) it is linked with βία---ἅπερ ἀπὸ Blas kal πλεονεξίας πέφυκε ζῆν, and in 26. p. 9010 it accompanies ἡδονή---ὁ θεὸς... ἀήττητος μὲν ἡδονῆς, ἀήττητος δὲ πλεονεξίας, a remarkable parallel to the NT association with sins of the flesh, based on a saying of Jesus (Mk 733) and repeated by at least three different NT writers (1 Cor 519, Heb 134, 2 Pet 214). Bunyan’s instinct rightly made Pickthank name together among Beelzebub’s friends ‘‘my old Lord Lechery, Sir Having Greedy, with all the rest of our nobility.”” See also Exp T xxxvi. p. 478 f. That πλεονεξία isa true vernacular word may be illustrated by its appearance in the illiterate P Fay 12474 (ii/a.p.) μετάμελόν σ[ο]ι πάλειν εἰσο[(σ]ει ἡ πλεονεξ[(7α σου, ‘your cupidity will again cause you regret’’(Edd.): cf. P Oxy XII. 14694 (A.D. 298) ἐπείπερ ἐὰν πλεονεξία τις προχωρήσῃ καθ᾽ [ἡμῶν δι ἀδυναμείαν ἀναπόστατοι καταστη[σ]όμεθα, ‘since, if any advantage of us is taken, our weakness will leave us no escape’’ (Edd.)—a petition of certain village-representatives against a subordinate official, and 26. I. 6718 (A.D. 338) εἵν᾽ οὕτως διχθῇ [ad]rav ἡ καθ᾽ ἡμῶν [πλεο]νεξία, ‘in this way their aggression against me will be made clear’? (Edd.)—a dispute concerning property. For the word in a good sense cf. Epict. ii. 10.9. In Sy// 418(= 8 888)!8% (a. p. 238) πλεονεκτήματα are simply ‘‘advantages,” with ἐλαττώματα in antithesis.
Liddell-Scott-Jones — Greek-English Lexicon
πλεονεξία (pleonexia) — greediness. πλεονεξία, Ionic dialect -ιη, ἡ, greediness, assumption, arrogance, τῶν Σπαρτιητέων ἡ π. [Refs 5th c.BC+]; π. συγγενική wrong done to one's kin, [Refs 4th c.AD+]
2. assumption, αἱ ἐν τῷ πυνθάνεσθαι π. [Refs 4th c.BC+]
II. advantage, [Refs 5th c.BC+]; αἱ π. αἱ ἴδιαι, αἱ δημόσιαι, [Refs 5th c.BC+]; ἐπὶ πλεονεξίᾳ with a view to one's own advantage, [Refs 5th c.BC+]; μετὰ πλεονεξίας τινὸς ἀγωνίζεσθαι πρὸς [τὰ θηρία] [Refs]excellences, [Refs 3rd c.AD+]
II.2. a larger share of a thing, τῶν πολιτικῶν δικαίων [Refs 4th c.BC+]
II.3. gain derived from a thing, τὴν ἐπὶ τῶν ἰδίων δικῶν πλεονεξίαν [Refs 4th c.BC+]undue gains, [Refs 5th c.BC+]
III. excess, opposed to ἔνδεια, [Refs 5th c.BC+]
STEPBible — Tyndale Abridged Greek Lexicon
📖 Greek Word Study — In-Depth Study from Precept Austin
Covetousness (4124) pleonexia