drunkenness

Reading level: hard

Estimated CEFR level: C1 — Advanced

Estimated from word frequency; not an official CEFR classification.

Definition

noun a temporary state resulting from excessive consumption of alcohol
noun habitual intoxication; 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
noun the act of drinking alcoholic beverages to excess

From drunken + -ness.

Drunkenness, I am told, is a Mongol failing. — A Wayfarer in China: Impressions of a trip across West China and Mongolia, Elizabeth Kimball Kendall
This is the place for enthusiasm, not for drunkenness. — Les Misérables, Victor Hugo
Cowley, he stuns himself with it: kind of drunkenness. — Ulysses, James Joyce

inebriation, inebriety, intoxication, tipsiness, insobriety

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