addictive

addictive — adjective

1. describes a drug, food, or activity that, once you have tried it, keeps pulling

1.adjectiveC1
Definition

describes a drug, food, or activity that, once you have tried it, keeps pulling you back so strongly that quitting feels almost impossible.

Example

Heroin is highly addictive, and Dr. Olu warns that one weekend of use can trap a patient for years.

collocation: highly addictive

Eitan admits that scrolling through TikTok before bed is more addictive than any video game she has ever played.

comparative: more addictive than

Common collocations
  • highly addictive
  • potentially addictive
  • dangerously addictive
  • addictive substance
  • addictive drug
  • addictive game
Synonyms
  • habit-forming

    neutral, often used on product warnings

  • compulsive

    describes the behaviour itself rather than the substance

  • moreish

    informal British, only for tasty food, not for drugs

Antonyms

Grammar Patterns

highly addictive

be addictive

Usage Note

Frequently modified by intensifiers such as 'highly', 'extremely', or 'terribly'. Subject is usually a substance (drug, sugar, caffeine), a food, or a screen-based activity (game, app, show).

Common Mistakes

I am addictive to coffee.
I am addicted to coffee.
the person who depends on something is 'addicted'; the substance itself is 'addictive'.
Sugar makes me addictive.
Sugar is addictive.
addictive describes the thing that causes the dependence, not the consumer.

2. showing a tendency in a person to fall into dependence on substances or habits v

2.adjectiveC2
Definition

showing a tendency in a person to fall into dependence on substances or habits very quickly, or describing the traits that make this happen.

Example

Farouk has an addictive personality, so his therapist advised him to stay away from gambling apps and energy drinks.

collocation: addictive personality

Researchers in Kyoto study why some teenagers show addictive behaviour around social media within weeks of getting a phone.

collocation: addictive behaviour

Common collocations
  • addictive personality
  • addictive behaviour
  • addictive tendencies
  • addictive nature
Synonyms

Grammar Patterns

addictive personality

addictive behaviour

Usage Note

Distinguish from sense 1: here the adjective describes the person or their traits ('addictive personality / behaviour / tendencies'), not a drug or activity. Almost always appears before a noun, not after 'be'.

Common Mistakes

My brother is addictive.
My brother has an addictive personality.
saying a person 'is addictive' suggests other people get hooked on them; use a noun phrase to describe the trait.

Word family

Synonym discussion

Sense: adjective/1

All four words describe something hard to stop, but they differ in scope and register. 'Addictive' is the strongest and most clinical, used for drugs (heroin, nicotine), foods (sugar), and screen activities (games, social media); it implies real loss of control. 'Habit-forming' is gentler and more neutral, often appearing on medicine labels and warnings, suggesting regular use rather than dependence. 'Compulsive' shifts the focus onto the behaviour and the person doing it, not the substance — we say 'compulsive shopping', not 'a compulsive snack'. 'Moreish' is informal British and limited to tasty food: 'These chips are moreish' is friendly praise; calling heroin 'moreish' would sound absurd. So: 'These cookies are addictive' (strong claim), 'moreish' (light praise), 'compulsive eating' (behaviour-focused), 'habit-forming sleeping pills' (cautious warning).

addictive ↗habit-formingcompulsivemoreish

Common collocations

Nouns

Adverbs

Phrases

  • highly addictive substance
  • potentially addictive drug
  • addictive personality

Etymology

LatinOld FrenchEnglish

Built in late 19th-century English from the noun 'addiction' plus the adjective ending '-ive', which marks 'having a tendency to'. 'Addiction' itself traces back through Old French to the Latin 'addictio', meaning a formal handing-over or surrender — originally a Roman legal term for awarding a debtor as a slave to a creditor. The medical sense (drug dependence) only became dominant in the early 1900s, and 'addictive' followed soon after to describe the substances doing the hooking.