noun ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   An addictive alkaloid narcotic derived from opium and used as a hypnotic, analgesic and antitussive; often mixed with aspirin etc. countable, uncountable
2. 2
   derivative of opium; used as an antitussive (to relieve coughing) and an analgesic (to relieve pain) wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms

alcoholamobarbital sodiumamytalamytal pillanalgesicanodyne

Example

More examples

"This cough syrup contains codeine."

Etymology

From French codéine, from Ancient Greek κώδεια (kṓdeia, “capsule of the poppy, poppy head”) + -ine.

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