What does "opium" mean?

A yellow-brown, addictive narcotic drug obtained from the dried juice of unripe pods of the opium poppy, Papaver somniferum, and containing alkaloids such as morphine, codeine, and papaverine.

What is a synonym for "opium"?

Common synonyms include: alcohol, amobarbital sodium, amytal, amytal pill, analgesic, anesthetic.

Opium

//ˈoʊ.pi.əm// noun

noun ·Moderate ·High school level

Definitions

Noun

1
A yellow-brown, addictive narcotic drug obtained from the dried juice of unripe pods of the opium poppy, Papaver somniferum, and containing alkaloids such as morphine, codeine, and papaverine. uncountable
"From hence we firſt ſailed to Achin, in the iſland of Sumatra, and then to Siam, where we bartered our wares for ſome arrack and opium, the laſt of which bore a great price among the Chineſe:[…]"
2
an addictive narcotic extracted from seed capsules of the opium poppy wordnet
3
Anything that numbs or stupefies. broadly, countable
"Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, […] It is the opium of the people."

Synonyms

All synonyms

alcohol amobarbital sodium amytal amytal pill analgesic anesthetic

Example

More examples

"Religion is the opium of the people."

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *sokʷós Ancient Greek ὀπός (opós) Proto-Indo-European *-yósder. Ancient Greek -ῐος (-ĭos)? Ancient Greek -ῐον (-ĭon) Ancient Greek ὄπιον (ópion)bor. Latin opiumbor. ▲ Ancient Greek ὄπιον (ópion)bor. English opium Borrowed from Latin opium and Ancient Greek ὄπιον (ópion), from ὀπός (opós, “juice of a plant”), from Proto-Indo-European *sokʷós (“juice, resin”).

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