'Veracious' means truthful or habitually accurate; 'voracious' means consuming food or information with extreme eagerness.
Adjective. Habitually truthful; honest, accurate, not given to falsehood. Rare in everyday use — the noun 'veracity' is more common.
His reputation as a veracious journalist was built over thirty years of accurate reporting.
Witnesses are required to be veracious under oath, regardless of the consequences.
Her veracious account of events matched exactly what the security footage showed.
Adjective. Consuming food or anything else with extreme eagerness. Ravenously hungry. Metaphorically: a voracious reader, learner, or worker.
She was a voracious reader who finished three or four books a week throughout her life.
The startup had a voracious appetite for data, processing millions of records each day.
The python is a voracious predator that can consume prey much larger than its own head.
Common mistake
These two words look and sound nearly identical but are completely unrelated in meaning. 'Veracious' (truthful) vs 'voracious' (ravenously hungry/eager). They appear together in lists of commonly confused words in advanced English examinations. 'Veracious' is rare enough that many native speakers do not know it — 'voracious' is by far the more common word.
Trick to remember it
'Veracious' contains VERA from Latin 'veritas' (truth) — same root as 'verify', 'veracity', 'verdict' (true saying). 'Voracious' contains VOR from Latin 'vorare' (to devour) — same root as 'carnivore', 'herbivore', and 'devour'.
Quick rule
Is it the adjective for truthful or accurate? 'Veracious'. Is it the adjective for ravenously hungry or eagerly consuming? 'Voracious'.
Did you know?
The Latin root 'veritas' (truth) is Harvard's motto and gives English: 'verify', 'verdict' (literally 'true saying'), 'verisimilitude', 'aver', 'veracity'. The Latin root 'vorare' (to devour) gives English: 'carnivore', 'herbivore', 'omnivore', 'devour', 'voracious'. A curious note: a 'voracious reader' has become a cliche precisely because it captures something real — studies on deep reading show that high-volume readers develop fundamentally different neural pathways for processing language and narrative. 'Veracious' is rare enough that many native English speakers encounter it for the first time in advanced vocabulary tests.
Exercise 1 · Pick the right one
She was a _____ learner who consumed new information faster than most people could absorb it.
Exercise 2 · Pick the right one
The journalist had a _____ reputation — every fact she published had been triple-checked.
Exercise 3 · Form the word
Is it the adjective for truthful or accurate? 'Veracious'. Is it the adjective for ravenously hungry or eagerly consuming? 'Voracious'.
These two words look and sound nearly identical but are completely unrelated in meaning. 'Veracious' (truthful) vs 'voracious' (ravenously hungry/eager). They appear together in lists of commonly confused words in advanced English examinations. 'Veracious' is rare enough that many native speakers do not know it — 'voracious' is by far the more common word.
'Veracious' contains VERA from Latin 'veritas' (truth) — same root as 'verify', 'veracity', 'verdict' (true saying). 'Voracious' contains VOR from Latin 'vorare' (to devour) — same root as 'carnivore', 'herbivore', and 'devour'.
Bryan López
Founder of SpeakUP Academy