eager implies ardor and enthusiasm and sometimes impatience at delay or restraint.
eager to get started
avid adds to eager the implication of insatiability or greed.
avid for new thrills
keen suggests intensity of interest and quick responsiveness in action.
keen on the latest fashions
anxious emphasizes fear of frustration or failure or disappointment.
anxious not to make a social blunder
athirst stresses yearning but not necessarily readiness for action.
athirst for adventure
Example Sentences
… wine connoisseurs eager to visit cellars and late-fall pilgrims seeking the increasingly rare white truffle … Corby Kummer, Atlantic, August 2000… so many religions were steeped in an absolutist frame of mind—each convinced that it alone had a monopoly on the truth and therefore eager for the state to impose this truth on others. Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World, 1996 She was eager to get started. The crowd was eager for more.
Recent Examples on the WebThat factor supported a political coalition of scientists interested in lunar research, China hawks eager to match and exceed a geopolitical rival, and entrepreneurs who believe in a future lunar economy. Tim Fernholz, Quartz, 2 Sep. 2022 But people don’t seem eager to meet that need: Students appear to be less interested in pursuing chef jobs. Tori Latham, Robb Report, 30 Aug. 2022 Asset managers—with affordable passive investment funds—were ready and eager to provide. Kate Aronoff, The New Republic, 29 Aug. 2022 Yet 42 years later, leaders in both parties seem eager to make common cause with the detente-pushing realists, assuming that an aggressive Russia and a rising China are merely the facts of life in the 21st century. Roger Zakheim, WSJ, 28 Aug. 2022 The company folded almost 50 years ago, but the cars still have a small but eager fan base. Brendan Mcaleer, Car and Driver, 17 Aug. 2022 When Grease was re-released in celebration of its 20th anniversary in 1998, Olivia Newton-John’s irresistible charm as Sandy Olsson found fresh and eager fans in millennials who, at the time, were just coming of age. Danielle Sinay, Glamour, 12 Aug. 2022 Everyone is very eager and excited for the new comeback and to get together. Jeff Benjamin, Billboard, 11 Aug. 2022 These companies royally mucked up both the business of journalism and the operation of the democracy the Fourth Estate holds in check; journalists are both right to hold the tech industry’s power to account and sometimes overly eager to do so. Ian Bogost, The Atlantic, 25 Aug. 2022 See More
Word History
Etymology
Middle English egre, from Anglo-French egre, aigre, from Latin acer — more at edge