Buzz
Imagine your partner informs you that their ex, whom they haven’t interacted with in years, is coming to visit. You kindly offer to host them for a dinner, but after hours of seeing the undeniable chemistry between the two, you begin to feel uneasy—this feeling is likely best described as jealousy, not envy.
As defined by Merriam-Webster, jealousy typically refers to the fear that someone is after something that belongs to you. In contrast, envy involves the desire to have something that someone else possesses.
However, this distinction is not always clear-cut. For instance, jealousy can sometimes be used interchangeably with envy. If your neighbor owns a highly prized Beanie Baby collection and you have a deep love for Beanie Babies (or wealth), you might say you're envious of your neighbor—or you might simply claim you’re jealous.
As Psychology Today notes, jealousy is frequently intertwined with envy. In fact, it’s often envy that triggers feelings of jealousy. For example, imagine your best friend, who recently got engaged, invites you to be her maid-of-honor. As you attend various wedding events, you begin to notice that your best friend seems to be favoring one of her bridesmaids—a stunningly glamorous, wealthy, thoughtful, and seemingly perfect new friend—over you. This causes you to feel jealous, but the underlying reason for your jealousy is that you envy this woman's qualities and the attention she’s receiving from your best friend. (Yes, we’re referencing the plot of 2011’s Bridesmaids).
To put it another way, jealousy is more strongly linked to territoriality, rivalry, and/or feelings of betrayal than envy is. However, if you dig deeper into the situation, you may find envy lurking beneath the surface as well.
