Soporific
adj, noun ·Common ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 Something inducing sleep, especially a drug.
"The doctor prescribed a soporific to help the patient sleep."
- 2 a drug that induces sleep wordnet
- 3 Something boring or dull. figuratively
- 1 Tending to induce sleep.
"For we are not here to understand, as perhaps some have, that an author actually falls asleep while he is writing. It is true, that readers are too apt to be so overtaken; […]To say the truth, these soporific parts are so many scenes of serious artfully interwoven, in order to contrast and set off the rest;"
- 2 Boring, dull. figuratively
"The professor delivered a soporific lecture."
- 1 inducing mental lethargy wordnet
- 2 sleep inducing wordnet
Example
More examples"Most people use music as a couch; they want to be pillowed on it, relaxed and consoled for the stress of daily living. But serious music was never meant to be soporific."
Etymology
From French soporifique, from Latin sopor (“deep sleep”). Unrelated to stupor (distinct in Proto-Indo-European).
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.