Alcoholism

Definitions: Alcoholism

Alcoholism

Noun

1. Prolonged and excessive intake of alcoholic drinks leading to a breakdown in health and an addiction to alcohol such that abrupt deprivation leads to severe withdrawal symptoms.

2. An intense persistent desire to drink alcoholic beverages to excess.

Date "alcoholism" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1896. (references)

Etymology: Alcoholism \Al"co*hol*ism\, noun. [Compare to the French expression alcoolisme.]. (Websters 1913)

Specialty Definitions: Alcoholism

Domain	Definitions
Food & Agriculture	A chronic behavioral disorder manifested by repeated drinking of alcoholic beverages in excess of the dietary and social uses of the community. Source: European Union. (references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Specialty Definition: Alcoholism

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

Alcoholism is an addictive dependency on alcohol characterised by craving (a strong need to drink); loss of control (being unable to stop); physical dependence and withdrawal symptoms; and tolerance (increasing difficulty of becoming drunk).

King Alcohol and his Prime Minister
engraving (detail) circa 1820

Alcoholism is a life-threatening problem that often ends in death, particularly through liver disease and internal bleeding. In young alcoholics however, there are still risks of death by alcohol poisioning, alcohol related accidents, or suicide.

Stereotypes of alcoholics, often as a "town drunk", are often found in fiction.

Alcohol dependence is much harder to break and much more damaging than dependence on most other addictive substances. The physical symptoms when withdrawing from alcohol are seen to be equal to those experienced during withdrawal from heroin.

Treatments for alcoholism include detoxification programs run by medical institutions. This may involve a stay of a couple of weeks in a specialized hospital ward where drugs may be used to avoid withdrawal symptoms. After this detoxification, various forms of group therapy or psychotherapy are used to deal with the underlying problems. These therapies may be supported by drugs like Disulfiram which cause a strong and prompt hangover whenever alcohol is consumed.

The social problems arising from alcoholism can include loss of employment, financial problems, conviction for crimes such as drunk driving or public disorder, loss of accommodation, and loss of respect from others who may see the problem as self-inflicted and easily avoided. Exhaustive studies, including those by author Wayne Kritsberg, show that alcoholism affects not only the addicted but profoundly impacts the family members around them. Their children can be affected even after they are grown. The condition is usually referred to as The Adult Children of Alcoholics Syndrome.

Many people incorrectly assume that once the person quits drinking, all is well. However, a fair amount of people who have stopped drinking still refer to themselves as "alcoholics" or "recovering alcoholics."

Organisations working with alcoholics include:

Alcoholics Anonymous
Men For Sobriety (MFS)
Moderation Management (MM)
Rational Recovery (RR)
Secular Organizations for Sobriety (SOS)
Self-Management and Recovery Training (SMART)
Women For Sobriety (WFS)

Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Alcoholism."

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Synonyms: Alcoholism

Synonyms: alcohol addiction (n), dipsomania (n), drunkenness (n), potomania (n). (additional references)

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Synonyms within Context: Alcoholism

Context	Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus).
Drunkenness	Oinomania, dipsomania; delirium tremens; alcohol, alcoholism; mania a potu.
Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus.

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Crosswords: Alcoholism

English words defined with "alcoholism": AA, alcohol amnestic disorder, alcoholic dementia, Alcoholics Anonymous, alcoholism abuse, Alpine scurvy, Antabuse, aversion therapy ♦ chlordiazepoxide, cirrhosis, cirrhosis of the liver ♦ disulfiram ♦ Korsakoff's psychosis, Korsakoff's syndrome, Korsakov's psychosis, Korsakov's syndrome ♦ Libritabs, Librium ♦ maidism, mal de la rosa, mal rosso, mayidism ♦ pellagra, polyneuritic psychosis ♦ Saint Ignatius' itch ♦ Wernicke's encephalopathy. (references)

Specialty definitions using "alcoholism": Alcohol Deterrents ♦ Liver Diseases, Alcoholic ♦ NIAA, NLAES ♦ PROGRAM SPECIALIST, EMPLOYEE-HEALTH MAINTENANCE. (references)

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Modern Usage: Alcoholism

Domain	Usage
Movie/TV Titles	Alcoholism (1955)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Commercial Usage: Alcoholism

Domain	Title
References	The 2002 Official Patient's Sourcebook on Alcoholism (reference) (more reference examples)

Books	Beyond the Influence: Understanding and Defeating Alcoholism (reference) I'll Quit Tomorrow: A Practical Guide to Alcoholism Treatment (reference) Love First: A New Approach to Intervention for Alcoholism and Drug Addiction (A Hazelden Guidebook) (reference) Terry: My Daughter's Life-And-Death Struggle With Alcoholism (reference) The Art of Moderation: An Alternative to Alcoholism (reference) (more book examples)

Periodicals	Alcoholism News Info (reference) Alcoholism Treatment Quarterly - Microfiche (reference) American Council On Alcoholism Associate Membership (reference) (more periodical examples)

Theater & Movies	Conversations in Social Construction; Alcoholism as a Social Construction An Interview with Raymond C. Madsen (reference) Disease of Alcoholism (reference) (more DVD examples; more video examples)

Music	RELEASING The Cause OF ALCOHOLISM (reference) (more classical music examples; more popular music examples)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Image Slideshow: Alcoholism

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Photo Album: Alcoholism

Thumbnail	Description & Credit	Thumbnail	Description & Credit
	The number and ownership of alcoholism treatment units in 1982 and 1990.Credit: NIAA.		Q: What's the one disease that:... : A: Alcoholism.Credit: National Library of Medicine.
	ALCOHOLISM : Only Happens To People Who Drink Alcohol.Credit: National Library of Medicine.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Familiar Quotations: Alcoholism

Author	Quotation
Harold S. Geneen	The worst disease which can afflict executives in their work is not, as popularly supposed, alcoholism; it's egotism.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

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Non-Fiction Usage: Alcoholism

Subject	Topic	Quote
Health		However, alcoholism has little to do with willpower. (references)
		Offers educational materials and information on alcoholism. (references)
		In fact, alcoholism is a disease that is no more a sign of weakness than is asthma. (references)
Children	Mongolia	There is growing awareness that child abuse, often associated with parental alcoholism, is a problem. (references)
Indigenous People	Taiwan	Land rights remain a crucial issue for Aborigines, along with social discrimination, educational underachievement, low economic status, and high rates of alcoholism. (references)
Political Economy	Sweden	Christian Democratic Party - Stands for morality and values-based governments, is anti-abortion, and wants greater support for homes and families in order to reduce youth problems, alcoholism, crime, and other social problems. (references)
Women	Uzbekistan	Another center in Samarkand operates a crisis hot line and provides educational services on alcoholism, sexually transmitted diseases, and family counseling. (references)
Worker Rights	Mongolia	Increasing alcoholism and parental abandonment make it necessary for many children to have an income in order to support themselves, their siblings, and sometimes their parents. (references)
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits.

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Spoken Usage: Alcoholism

Speaker	Phrase(s)
Ann Richards	I know that my alcoholism affected osteoporosis. And I was also a smoker. Smoking is very bad for your bones. So absolutely it is a factor in my osteoporosis.
Liza Minnelli	Well, it's chemical dependency. Alcoholism, if you look it up in the AMA, is a disease, which nobody really knew about until recently. So I, like many people, didn't really know it was a disease, but I found out. I fought for my life, I fought for David.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Usage Frequency: Alcoholism

"Alcoholism" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 99.56% of the time. "Alcoholism" is used about 228 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted)

Parts of Speech	Percent	Usage per 100 Million Words	Rank in English
Noun (singular)	99.56%	227	19,961
Adjective (general or positive)	0.44%	1	339,140
Total	100.00%	228	N/A

Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.

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Expressions: Alcoholism

Expressions using "alcoholism": acute alcoholism ♦ alcoholism abuse ♦ fight against alcoholism. Additional references.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Frequency of Internet Keywords: Alcoholism

The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com.

Expression	Frequency per Day	Expression	Frequency per Day
alcoholism	3,750	definition of alcoholism	27
alcoholism treatment	329	alcoholism test	27
alcoholism sign	130	research society on alcoholism	24
alcoholism symptom	113	alcoholism warning sign	24
effects of alcoholism	100	national institute on alcohol abuse and alcoholism	24
el alcoholism	72	alcoholism enfermedad	23
alcohol alcoholism consumo de	62	family with alcoholism	23
teen alcoholism	53	alcohol alcoholism del dependencia	23
alcoholism statistics	50	alcoholism genetics	22
teenage alcoholism	47	alcoholism woman	22
alcoholism cause	44	help for alcoholism	22
alcoholism information	44	alcoholism del historia	21
alcoholism disease	43	alcoholism medication	21
que es el alcoholism	41	alcoholism efectos los	20
alcoholism y drogadiccion	35	alcoholism contact information treatment	19
alcoholism depression	33	alcoholism article	18
picture on alcoholism	31	alcoholism recovery	18
native american alcoholism	31	chronic alcoholism	17
stage of alcoholism	29	treating alcoholism	17
fact about alcoholism	27	adolescent alcoholism	17
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Modern Translations: Alcoholism

Language		Translations for "alcoholism"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses.
Afrikaan		alkoholisme. (various references)

Albanian		alkoolizëm (Dipsomania, inebriety). (various references)

Arabic		‏معاقرة (addiction), ‏التسمم بالكحول, ‏إفراط في الشراب, ‏إدمان الكحول. (various references)

Bulgarian		алкохолизъм (crapulence, inebriety), пиянство (crapulence, drink, drinking, fuddle, inebriation, inebriety, insobriety, intemperance, spree). (various references)

Chinese		�'精中�'. (various references)

Czech		alkoholismus. (various references)

Danish		alkoholisme. (various references)

Dutch		alcoholisme. (various references)

Esperanto		alkoholismo. (various references)

Finnish		alkoholismi. (various references)

French		alcoolisme. (various references)

German		Trunksucht (drunkenness, intemperance, potomania), Alkoholismus. (various references)

Greek		αλκοολισμός. (various references)

Hebrew		כ�"ליות. (various references)

Hungarian		alkoholizmus (intemperance). (various references)

Italian		alcolismo. (various references)

Japanese Kanji		アルコール依存症 , アルコール中�' , アル中 (array). (various references)

Japanese Katakana		アルコールいぞ�"しょう, アルコールちゅうどく, アルちゅう. (various references)

Manx		sheer-veshtallys (dipsomania). (various references)

Papiamen		alkoholismo. (various references)

Pig Latin		alcoholismay

Portuguese		alcoolismo (acute alcoholism, dipsomania, inedible, intemperate). (various references)

Romanian		alcoolism (intemperance). (various references)

Russian		алкоголизм (dipsomania, heavy drinking, inebriety). (various references)

Serbo-Croatian		alkoholizam. (various references)

Spanish		alcoholismo (brandy addiction). (various references)

Swedish		alkoholism (dipsomania). (various references)

Turkish		ayyaşlık (debauch, debauchery, drunkenness, insobriety), alkolizm, alkoliklik (dipsomania), içki alışkanlığı (drinking, heavy drinking). (various references)

Ukranian		алкоголізм (dipsomania), пияцтво (bibbing, debauchery, drink, drinking, drunkenness, potations, suction). (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references.

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Derivations & Misspellings: Alcoholism

Derivations
	Words beginning with "alcoholism": alcoholisms. (additional references)
	Words ending with "alcoholism": antialcoholism. (additional references)
	Words containing "alcoholism": antialcoholisms. (additional references)
Misspellings
	"Alcoholism" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: aalcoholism, alcaholism, alchoholism, alcoholismo. (additional references)
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references).

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Rhyming with "Alcoholism"

# of Phoneme Matches	Pronunciation	Word(s) rhyming with "alcoholism" (pronounced a"lkuhô'li'zum)
5	-l i' z u m	bilingualism, botulism, cannibalism, capitalism, centralism, colonialism, commercialism, dualism, embolism, emotionalism, entrepreneurialism, environmentalism, evangelism, factionalism, fatalism, federalism, feudalism, formalism, fundamentalism, gradualism, idealism, imperialism, incrementalism, individualism, intellectualism, internationalism, journalism, legalism, liberalism, materialism, mercantilism, metabolism, minimalism, moralism, multiculturalism, multilateralism, mutualism, nationalism, naturalism, neutralism, nihilism, parallelism, parochialism, pastoralism, paternalism, pluralism, populism, professionalism, provincialism, racialism, radicalism, realism, sensationalism, socialism, supernaturalism, surrealism, symbolism, territorialism, vandalism.
4	-i' z u m	abolitionism, absenteeism, absolutism, activism, adventurism, agrarianism, altruism, amateurism, anachronism, aneurism, animism, antagonism, aphorism, astigmatism, atavism, atheism, authoritarianism, autism, baptism, barbarism, bolshevism, boosterism, catechism, chauvinism, classicism, collectivism, communism, conservatism, consumerism, corporatism, counterterrorism, creationism, criticism, cronyism, cubism, cynicism, dandyism, defeatism, deism, despotism, determinism, diamagnetism, diastrophism, dimorphism, dogmatism, Druidism, dwarfism, dynamism, egalitarianism, egoism, egotism, electromagnetism, elitism, empiricism, ergotism, eroticism, escapism, ethnocentrism, euphemism, expansionism, expressionism, extremism, fanaticism, fascism, favoritism, feminism, ferromagnetism, fetishism, futurism, geotropism, gnosticism, hedonism, helotism, heroism, hooliganism, humanism, hypnotism, illusionism, impressionism, interventionism, Irredentism, isolationism, isomorphism, jingoism, leftism, lesbianism, lyricism, magnetism, mannerism, masochism, mechanism, mesmerism, methodism, microorganism, militarism, modernism, monasticism, monetarism, monism, monotheism, mysticism, narcissism, nativism, negativism, nepotism, obstructionism, opportunism, optimism, organism, ostracism, overoptimism, pacifism, paganism, parkinsonism, patriotism, perfectionism, pessimism, pharisaism, pietism, plagiarism, polymorphism, polytheism, positivism, pragmatism, protectionism, puritanism, racism, recidivism, relativism, republicanism, revisionism, rheumatism, romanticism, sadism, satanism, sectarianism, secularism, separatism, sexism, skepticism, statism, stoicism, synergism, terrorism, theism, tokenism, totalitarianism, tourism, truism, unionism, vegetarianism, vigilantism, voluntarism, volunteerism, voyeurism.
3	-z u m	bosom, careerism, chasm, cytoplasm, enthusiasm, iconoclasm, ism, microcosm, neoplasm, orgasm, phantasm, prism, sarcasm, schism, spasm.
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits.

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Anagrams: Alcoholism

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams
	Words within the letters "a-c-h-i-l-l-m-o-o-s"
	-2 letters: alcohols, localism, mochilas, scolioma.
	-3 letters: alcohol, challis, chamiso, chamois, chimlas, chollas, coolish, halloos, hilloas, holloas, lochial, locoism, miscall, mochila, mollahs, molochs, moolahs, oomiacs, osmolal, scholia.
	-4 letters: cashoo, chiasm, chills, chimla, cholla, cholos, claims, halloo, hallos, hilloa, hillos, holism, hollas, holloa, hollos, holmic, laichs, lilacs, locals, lochia, machos, maills, mochas, mollah, moloch, moolah, moolas.
	Words containing the letters "a-c-h-i-l-l-m-o-o-s"
	+1 letter: alcoholisms.
	+4 letters: antialcoholism, isomorphically.
	+5 letters: antialcoholisms.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro.