Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Compulsive physiological and psychological need for a habit-forming substance: a drug used in the treatment of heroin addiction.
- n. An instance of this: a person with multiple chemical addictions.
- n. The condition of being habitually or compulsively occupied with or or involved in something.
- n. An instance of this: had an addiction for fast cars.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. The state of being given up to some habit, practice, or pursuit; addictedness; devotion.
- n. In Roman law, a formal giving over or delivery by sentence of court; hence, a surrender or dedication of any one to a master.
Wiktionary
- n. The state of being addicted; devotion; inclination.
- n. A habit or practice that damages, jeopardizes or shortens one's life but when ceased causes trauma.
- n. A pathological relationship to mood altering experience that has life damaging consequences.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. The state of being addicted; devotion; inclination.
WordNet 3.0
- n. being abnormally tolerant to and dependent on something that is psychologically or physically habit-forming (especially alcohol or narcotic drugs)
- n. (Roman law) a formal award by a magistrate of a thing or person to another person (as the award of a debtor to his creditor); a surrender to a master
- n. an abnormally strong craving
Etymologies
- From addict + -ion; compare (Latin) addictio ("an adjudging, an award") (Wiktionary)
Examples
“The term addiction usually refers to both psychological and physical dependence on a drug, including alcohol.”
“My analogy regarding giving more tax dollars to Congress, likening it to heroin addiction, is quite apt.”
Matthew Yglesias » Conservatives Don’t Care About the Deficit
“The current directors of the agencies charged with studying drugs (the National Institute on Drug Abuse, or NIDA) and alcohol (the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, or NIAAA) have both voted for returning the term addiction to DSM-V.”
“Yet she wants to return to the term addiction in order to rule out dependencies on legitimately prescribed medications.”
“While the word addiction may make you think of smoking or alcohol, cocaine or methamphetamine, there are many other things besides these traditional substances that can trigger addictive physiology—things like gambling, sex, food, even playing video games.”
“MILLMAN: I do think that the term addiction gets overused.”
“And that was the nature of the term addiction, or addict, well into the 1500s.”
“And of course, the theme in your book is, where does the word addiction come from?”
“When I use the term addiction, I mean it as a wake-up call.”
“In the underdeveloped world that isn't developing, the addiction is a mixture of fascism, corruption, and socialism.”
Lucas on Growth, Arnold Kling | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘addiction’.
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
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POL - issues
emergency services, abortion, accounting reform, addiction, affirmative action, agriculture policy, AIDS, air pollution, air quality, alcohol abuse, drug trafficking, trafficking in hu... and 200 more...
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things (bad)
things you may fall victim to.
goto things (good)
( randomness, events, situations, nouns )treachery, quagmire, overdose, bombing, suicide, homicide, spam, prison, acute renal failure, bad programming, being pants'd, bleeding out and 37 more...
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Strong desire
obsession, addiction, enthusiastic, eagerness, zeal, devotion, urge
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zzyyxx's Words
plethora, drout, functional, rye, wring, doubt, cognative, weird, gnaw, surcease, rend, languish and 438 more...
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SAT Vocab
Redundant.
problematic, proclivity, prodigal, prodigious, prodigy, profane, profligate, profound, profusion, proliferation, prolific, prologue and 455 more...
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Cage
cage, depart, nothing, void, strain, unconscious, never, alone, floor, God, hell, winter and 219 more...
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ginnylev's Words
neuroplasticity, repudiate, scintilla, ruminate, tautology, ombudsman, exigent, filibuster, grace, ambidextrous, amends, disclosure and 623 more...
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thegirlnextfloor's list
autumnal, avalanche, silhouette, antique, abysmal, scorch, sonic, surge, symmetry, whisper, penchant, dissipate and 349 more...
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List.001
New word list
imperative, republic, subtle, Androgynous, licentious, auspices, avengeance, cabal, sibilant, Entropy, caduceus, ludicrous, and 170 more...
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ash
ash
abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abide, abject, abjure and 4874 more...
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the a list
self-explanatory...
abort, able, about, addiction, absence, annotated, actual, accelerate, acidity, accolades, accomplish, accompany and 57 more...
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Nouns first attested in Shakespeare
summit, scuffle, critic, bandit, mountaineer, savagery, bedroom, radiance, birthplace, pageantry, courtship, ode and 13 more...
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favorite psychological topics
physiology, developmental psy..., child psychology, experience, psychology of exp..., phonemes, stereotypes, prejudice, the psychology of..., the root of evil, discrimintation, gender differences and 29 more...
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traits (bad)
bad traits that are common in human behaviour.
goto traits (neutral)
goto traits (good)
( randomness, descriptive, psychology, mindset, perspective, outlook, noun )laziness, inconsideration, pessimism, selfishness, unhappiness, ignorance, jealousy, gluttony, arrogance, passive-aggression, dishonesty, unreason and 14 more...
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words
catalyst, eloquent, curious, sequence, infirmary, rendezvous, institution, addiction, culture, mesmerizing, plethora, anamorphic and 22 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for addiction.
reesetee Heehee. Dec 29, 2008
Prolagus And, of course, there's a list for that. Dec 28, 2008
garyth123 You know you are in the grip of another internet addiction when, clicking on your Wordie link icon, you get a Page load error and you hear yourself mutter the f word. Dec 28, 2008