addiction
Pluraladdictions
- 1A condition marked by compulsive drug use or repeated engagement in a rewarding behavior despite harmful consequences.
Years of gambling led to an addiction that he could no longer control.
Clinicians treat addiction as a chronic, relapsing condition rather than a moral failing.
Similardependence, dependency, habit
Note
In clinical use the word names a condition, not a substance. What defines it is compulsion that persists despite harm, and that covers behaviors such as gambling as well as drugs. It is both countable and uncountable: clinicians treat addiction, while Thy Art is Murder's Chemical Christ (2019) sings of deadly addictions to drugs people prescribe for themselves, where the plural counts separate dependencies. Keep it apart from the gentler 'devotion' meaning, which implies no harm at all.
- 2A habit or practice that harms, endangers, or shortens one's life, yet causes distress when one tries to stop.
Doctors warned that his addiction would shorten his life unless he found a way to quit.
Giving up the addiction left her shaking and anxious for weeks.
Similarhabit, dependency
- 3The state of being devoted to something or strongly inclined toward it.
The scholar's addiction to ancient languages shaped his entire career.
He confessed a lifelong addiction to chess that no other hobby could replace.
Similardevotion, passion, obsession, dedication
Oppositeaversion
Note
The Latin behind the word explains this sense best. Addictio meant "an adjudging, an award," so to be addicted here is to be made over to something, given to it: ancient languages, chess, a lifelong pastime. Nothing pathological is meant. Readers may still hear the clinical condition behind it, so devotion or inclination is the safer choice when you want no hint of harm.
- 4An unhealthy relationship with a mood-altering experience that brings damaging consequences to one's life.
Therapists described his addiction as a destructive bond with anything that altered his mood.
Recovery began once she recognized the addiction reshaping every part of her life.
Similardependency, dependence
Note
Here the weight falls on the relationship rather than the thing. What matters is how a person stands toward a mood-altering experience, not which experience it is. Shakespeare's Henry V (1599) has "His addiction was to courses vain," with idle pursuits as the object. The line sits close to the older 'devotion' meaning and shows how near the two senses lie.
Practice
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Origin
Formed from addict plus the suffix -ion; compare Latin addictio ("an adjudging, an award").