Ravenous means extremely hungry, so hungry that you feel like you could eat everything in sight. When you're ravenous, your stomach growls intensely and feels like it's demanding food right now. You might feel ravenous after running around all afternoon without a snack, or when you wake up after sleeping through breakfast.

When you're ravenous, you have a fierce, urgent hunger.

You'll often hear ravenous used to paint a vivid picture: “After the long hike, the campers were ravenous and devoured their sandwiches in minutes.” The word suggests hunger so intense it's almost overwhelming. Someone who's merely hungry might wait patiently for dinner. Someone who's ravenous digs in the moment their plate arrives.

The word can also describe intense non-food cravings. A reader might have a ravenous appetite for mystery novels, reading one after another. A scientist might pursue knowledge with ravenous curiosity. In these cases, ravenous describes that same intense, almost unstoppable desire to consume something, whether it's books, information, or adventure.