sedative

1. 1.

   tending to soothe or tranquilize

   “valium has a tranquilizing effect”

   “took a hot drink with sedative properties before going to bed”

   Synonymsataracticataraxictranquilizingtranquillizingtranquilisingtranquillising

   Similardepressant

Other forms of sedative

plural

sedatives·

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about sedative

What does sedative mean?

sedative means "a drug that reduces excitability and calms a person". That is the primary sense; the word has 2 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in sedative?

sedative has 3 syllables: sed-a-tive. The stress falls on "sed". In IPA it is /ˈsɛdətɪv/.

What is another word for sedative?

Close synonyms include sedative drug, depressant, downer, ataractic, ataraxic. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is sedative a common word?

sedative is banded "Familiar" — widely understood, used when the subject calls for it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.