up-BRAYD
(verb) To scold or criticize sharply.
She upbraided her son for breaking the vase and lying about it.
Fun Fact
“Upbraid” was common in Elizabethan English, and Shakespeare used it over a dozen times in plays like Othello and Hamlet. It’s harsher than a gentle rebuke but often used where correction is needed more than punishment.
AV-uh-ris
(noun) Extreme greed for wealth or material gain.
His avarice drove him to exploit every opportunity, no matter who was hurt in the process.
From Latin avaritia, meaning “greed” or “covetousness.”
Fun Fact
Avarice has been condemned for centuries as one of the Seven Deadly Sins, but it often hides behind ambition or thrift. In literature, it’s a recurring theme—from Charles Dickens’s Ebenezer Scrooge to F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Jay Gatsby—characters who chase wealth so relentlessly that it consumes their humanity. Psychologists note that avarice isn’t just about money; it’s about control and fear of loss, a hunger that grows stronger the more it’s fed.
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