These words refer to a state of extreme readiness and interest in some prospective action or subject, suggesting one’s willingness to become involved in it. Eager may suggest a general thirst for experience of all kinds or an intense interest of a more specific nature: young, eager students ready to take on the world; eager for his first look round Paris. While the word most often suggests a period before involvement is possible, it may also describe the intensity of involvement itself: an eager lover. Intent relates to this last possibility of eager , suggesting an undivided concentration on the activity itself: intent on the book he was reading. It may also suggest a purposeful and determined search for something that interests one: intent on finding the café he had read about in magazines.

Avid and desirous both pertain mostly to the period before involvement. Both may refer to an intense longing or craving, but desirous might now seem old-fashioned or archaic-sounding to many: desirous of her hand in marriage. Avid still retains it forcefulness as in intensification of eager , suggesting a craving on the point of desperation: avid for new of the city; the avid reader of science-fiction. Like eager , it may also describe actual involvement, but again with greater intensity: He dispatched the meal with a series of avid gulps.

Keen and enthusiastic both may suggest an extreme liking for or approval of something. Keen best describes eager involvement: children who watched the clowns with keen delight. Much more informally, the word indicates a special liking or appetite for something: keen on mystery stories. Enthusiastic is unique among these words in applying mostly to participation rather than expectation, or to a favourable verdict on something already experienced or proposed. For example, a person can be eager for a holiday and enthusiastic about the plans he was made, but he cannot be enthusiastic about the holiday itself until it is under way or over. Thus the word pertains to activity undertaken with gusto, verve and exuberance, or to an extremely favourable judgement that contains few reservations: an enthusiastic group of mountain-climbers; enthusiastic reviews of his book.