Apedia

Anodyne Anodynos An Uh Dyn Adjective Relieving Pain Soothing Bland

Anodyne has meanings related to relieving pain or being soothing, as well as being bland or inoffensive. It can refer to a pain-relieving substance or something comforting.

Anodyne means relieving pain or soothing, or bland and unlikely to offend. It can also refer to something that soothes or comforts, or a pain-relieving medicine. The term comes from Greek roots meaning 'not pain.'

Back
anodyne /AN-uh-dyn/
Front
adjective
1. Relieving pain; soothing.
2. Bland or insipid: not likely to provoke or offend.

noun
1. Something that soothes or comforts.
2. A medicine that relieves pain.

[From Latin anodynos, from Greek anodynos, from a- (not) + odyne (pain). Ultimately from the Indo-European root ed- (to eat, to bite), which also gave us edible, comestible, obese, etch, fret, postprandial, esurient, and edacity. Earliest documented use: 1543.]

“The interview, while engaging, was anodyne and strangely emollient, entirely without any edge.” - TV: Shelving the Misery Memoirs; Sunday Business Post (Cork, Ireland); May 18, 2014. 

Learn with these flashcards. Click next, previous, or up to navigate to more flashcards for this subject.

Next card: Adventious ad-ven-shuhs adjective coming inherent native happening chance

Previous card: Gold solidus sol-i-dus noun slash a gold coin issued

Up to card list: Hard English Vocabulary