opium

Borrowed from Latin opium and Ancient Greek ὄπιον (ópion), from ὀπός (opós, “juice of a plant”), from Proto-Indo-European *swokʷos (“juice, resin”).

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈoʊpi.əm/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈəʊpi.əm/

opium (countable and uncountable, plural opiums or opia)

1. (uncountable) A yellow-brown, addictive narcotic drug obtained from the dried juice of unripe pods of the opium poppy, Papaver somniferum, and containing alkaloids such as morphine, codeine, and papaverine.
2. (countable) Anything that numbs or stupefies.
   • "Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, . . . It is the opium of the people." - Karl Marx

• See also Thesaurus:recreational drug

opium n

1. opium

From Middle Dutch opium, from Latin opium, from Ancient Greek ὄπιον (ópion).

• IPA^(key): /ˈoː.pi.ʏm/

• Audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: opi‧um

opium n or m (uncountable)

1. opium

opium m (plural opiums)

1. opium

• opion

Borrowed from Ancient Greek ὄπιον (ópion), from ὀπός (opós, “juice of a plant”), from Proto-Indo-European *swokʷos (“juice, resin”).

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈo.pi.um/, [ˈɔ.pi.ũ]

opium n (genitive opiī); second declension

1. opium, poppy-juice

Second declension.

• English: opium
• Italian: oppio
• Russian: о́пиум (ópium)

• opium in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• opium in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire Illustré Latin-Français, Hachette

opium c

1. opium (a drug)

   Religionen är ett opium för folket.

   Religion is the opium of the people. (Karl Marx)