【Ambitious】 and 【Emulous】 both mean extremely desirous of something that will give one power, fame, success, or riches.
【Ambitious】 often implies inordinate, sometimes presumptuous, eagerness to advance oneself or to attain something beyond one′s present reach; it may, in addition, connote aggressiveness in the pursuit of one′s ends.
- the noble Brutus hath told you Caesar was 【ambitious】 : if it were so, it was a grievous fault
—Shak.
【Emulous】 stresses the desire to equal or surpass others; it can suggest covetous rivalry or merely the spirit of competition.
- men of pedigree . . . 【emulous】 always of the nearest place to any throne, except the throne of grace
—Cowper