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What is a good word to use for describing someone as "desiring power"?

I suppose power-hungry would work. Megalomaniac seems a bit much, but I can see how that works. I was wondering if there was another word, something I didn't know.

I'm using the word to describe a group of people, and I wish to be both descriptive and respectful.

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    Power-hungry. ODO has Having a strong desire for power: the power-hungry and evil dictator. Too obvious for an 'answer'.
    – Edwin Ashworth
    Commented Jul 4, 2015 at 21:09
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    Megalomaniac if it's an obsessive desire
    – Avon
    Commented Jul 4, 2015 at 21:23
  • Yea, I suppose power-hungry would work. Megalomaniac seems a bit much, but I can see how that works. I was wondering if there was another word, something I didn't know.
    – Jon Buys
    Commented Jul 4, 2015 at 21:57
  • It's hard to say what a "good" word is for something, without knowing the context where it will be used. Could you add a bit more information about what sort of word you want, and how you'd use it? Questions are also often appreciated more when they show some evidence of "research": do you know any words that have this meaning already? If so, why don't they work for you? Adding information about this kind of stuff to your question will help people write more useful answers.
    – herisson
    Commented Jul 4, 2015 at 23:58
  • rapacious? A gluttony for acquisition...
    – stevesliva
    Commented Jul 5, 2015 at 5:45

3 Answers 3

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aspirant

noun:

a person who has ambitions to achieve something: an aspirant to the throne.

(via Apple dictionary, which I think links to the OED)

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Ambitious is a general descriptor that can be applied to power as well as other advantages that lead to success:

adjective

1 Having or showing a strong desire and determination to succeed:
a ruthlessly ambitious woman
ODO

Since power is a key to success in most endeavors, people with a strong desire to succeed are often perceived as power-hungry, even if the pursuit of power is not their ultimate goal. Other people define success in terms of accumulating power, and these ambitious people are truly hungry for power. When describing projects, ambitious is more likely to have a positive connotation, but when applied to people, it can often harbor the negative connotations of the insatiable desire for power and wealth, as seen in The Huguenots, by Samuel Smiles:

He [Louis XIV] was proud, ambitious, fond of power, and believed himself to be the greatest of men.

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  • This is a great answer, thank you for taking the time to write this out. It's "aspirant" that I was looking for, I apologize for the vague question.
    – Jon Buys
    Commented Jul 5, 2015 at 15:02
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Megalomaniac. Megalomania is defined as a strong desire for power.

an unnaturally strong wish for power and control, or the belief that you are very much more important and powerful than you really are. - Cambridge Dictionary Online

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