Greed

Greed is a desire to obtain more money or material possessions than one is considered to need. A more religious term for greed is avarice, which is listed as one of the Seven Deadly Sins.

Greedy individuals are often believed to be harmful to society as their motives often appear to disregard the welfare of others: if one person is to increase in wealth, somebody else must be decreasing in wealth. However, greed has become more acceptable (and the word less frequent) in Western culture, where the desire to acquire wealth is an important part of capitalism.

When greed concerns food it is traditionally referred to as gluttony, although this term is seldom heard outside discussions of the Seven Deadly Sins.