drunk
adjective · noun · adverb
Simple meaning
Intoxicated as a result of excessive alcohol consumption, usually by drinking alcoholic beverages.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
druhngkIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈdɹʌŋk
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
adjective
Intoxicated as a result of excessive alcohol consumption, usually by drinking alcoholic beverages.
usually followed by with or on
Elated or emboldened.
Drenched or saturated with moisture or liquid.
noun
One who is intoxicated with alcohol.
A chronic drinker
A habitual drinker, especially one who is frequently intoxicated.
A drinking-bout; a period of drunkenness.
A drunken state.
adverb
While drunk.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B1 · Intermediate
- Frequency
- Common
- Typical Use
- Everyday English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Intoxicated as a result of excessive alcohol consumption, usually by drinking alcoholic beverages.
Used this way, drunk is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- No strong connotation
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Nearby words
- bibulous , rarer, so it draws attention
- stoned , more casual, better suited to speech than writing
- high , more casual, better suited to speech than writing
- boozy , rarer, so it draws attention
- plastered , more casual, better suited to speech than writing
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
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Similar Words, What’s the Difference?
Close in meaning, but not always interchangeable.
Permitting alcoholic beverages.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
Someone arrested on the charge of being drunk and disorderly.
Related Words
Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.