I have a sentence: "I was excited to receive the news that I won the lottery..."
and I need to keep the meaning but avoid the word "excited" (I have the same word in the sentence before)
Can I say: "I avidly received the news that..."
Or any other suggestions?
Thanks!
To do something "avidly" means that you do it enthusiastically, you do it more thoroughly than you might otherwise because you enjoy it or have a great interest in it. To "avidly read the news" would mean you read through an entire newspaper (or news web site or whatever), or read news from many sources, and that you do this because you want to and not because you have to for some reason.
So I don't think "avidly" works in this context. You can't really "avidly receive something". You may be excited or happy to hear this news, but you can't "avidly receive" it because "avid" implies that you are actively doing something.
Words that come to mind are "I was overjoyed to hear ..." or "thrilled to hear ...". "I was happy to hear ..." is grammatically correct but seems weak in context. You could also try something more colorful, like, "I practically fell out of my chair when I heard ..." or "I was beside myself when I learned ..."
I would use thrilled:
I was thrilled to receive the news that day.
That being said, I have not heard the use of the word avidly so personally I would avoid it. Avid also seems to be used when you are greedy, when you desperately desire something which is, for as far as I can tell, not what you want to convey.
You can also consider using "keen" or "eager" which both show a strong desire for something but are less negative than avid.
It really depends on the context. There are different levels of wording for formal, informal, business, texting, etc. While I agree that "thrilled" fits the literal definition, I would probably use "very happy" to convey my actual feelings, regardless of context.
