sedative
noun · adjective
Simple meaning
An agent or drug that sedates, having a calming or soothing effect, or inducing sleep.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
sehduhtivSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈsɛdətɪv
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.
noun
pharmacology
An agent or drug that sedates, having a calming or soothing effect, or inducing sleep.
adjective
pharmacology
Calming, soothing, inducing sleep, tranquilizing
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: (pharmacology) An agent or drug that sedates, having a calming or soothing effect, or inducing sleep.
Used this way, sedative is a reasonably familiar word with a clearly warm, approving pull. It keeps things gentle rather than emphatic.
- Emotional tone
- Positive
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Gentle
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Calm and reassuring
- Usage feel
- Understated and gentle
Nearby words
- sedative drug , rarer, so it draws attention
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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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.