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Kanji for Greed
The kanji most commonly used for "Greed" are 欲、貪.
欲
Kanji that mean Greed
欲 (yoku) is desire — the wanting itself. 食欲 is appetite, 意欲 is drive and motivation, 欲しい simply “I want it”. The character is neutral machinery: Japanese psychology and marketing both run on 欲. Add the heart radical and it intensifies to 慾, the old form reserved for the carnal register.
貪 (don / musaboru) is greed proper — to devour insatiably. The shell radical 貝 (ancient money) sits under 今: wealth grasped now. 貪欲 (don’yoku) is greed or, flipped positive, voracious eagerness — a 貪欲に学ぶ student devours knowledge. In Buddhism 貪 is the first of the three poisons (貪・瞋・痴 — greed, wrath, delusion), the craving that chains beings to suffering.
Japanese thus splits what English blurs: 欲 the engine of wanting, 貪 the engine overrun. One is human; the other is the poison.
Words using Greed kanji
Everyday Japanese vocabulary built from the characters above.
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欲求
よっきゅう
desire; want; will
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貪る
むさぼる
to covet; to crave; to be greedy for
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欲しい
ほしい
wanting (to have); desiring; wishing for
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欲する
ほっする
to want; to desire
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欲しがる
ほしがる
to appear to want to have (something); to obviously want; to seem to want
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欲張る
よくばる
to be greedy; to be avaricious; to want badly
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欲張り
よくばり
greed; avarice; covetousness
Before you use Greed kanji
As a tattoo, 欲 reads as "desire" — ambiguous but not damning; some wear it as an honest engine. 貪 reads as the Buddhist poison: insatiable craving — a bold, dark choice best made knowingly. If the intent is ambition rather than appetite, 志 (aspiration) or 意欲 (drive) say hunger without the sin.