Addictive

//əˈdɪktɪv// adj, noun

adj, noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A drug that causes an addiction.
  2. 2
    Anything that is very habit-forming.
Adjective
  1. 1
    Causing or tending to cause addiction; habit-forming.

    "These are addictive drugs."

  2. 2
    Enjoyable, so that one comes back for more.

    "There are loads of mazes, it's all really good fun and utterly addictive […]"

  3. 3
    Characterized by or susceptible to addiction.

    "He has an addictive personality."

Adjective
  1. 1
    causing or characterized by addiction wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
addictingconditioninghabit forminghabit-forminghabit-forminghard

Example

More examples

"I think that, as he's using addictive substances like thinner, the chance of rehabilitation is low."

Etymology

First attested 1914. Addiction in modern sense is first attested 1906, in reference to opium. There is an isolated instance from 1779, with reference to tobacco.

Related phrases

addictive personalityhabit forming

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.