oenomania means morbid desire for wine; dipsomania; alcoholism. It carries an Arena rating of 1469, earned across 26 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, oenomania ranks #2,349 of 17,138 for Most Incisive Words, #3,313 of 17,104 for Most Storied Words, #3,670 of 17,143 for Best Fossil-Poetry Words, #3,735 of 17,163 for Funniest Words.
Why “oenomania” is a great word
OENOMANIA — [Noun] A morbid and compulsive craving for wine, a form of alcoholism characterized by a monomaniacal obsession with the fruit of the vine. From the Ancient Greek οἶνος (oînos, "wine") combined with μανία (manía, "madness, insanity"). First attested in English in 1852. Unlike dipsomania, which describes a periodic, violent thirst for any strong drink, or oenophilia, which denotes a connoisseur's cultivated appreciation, oenomania is a singular, consuming hunger. It is the cellar hoarded for voracity, not vintages; the tongue seeking oblivion, not terroir; the mind feverishly charting the logistics of the next bottle, not tasting notes. This is a devotion that mistakes the vessel for the vein—a tragedy where the god of revelry becomes a jealous, consuming idol.
Etymology
From oeno- + -mania, from Ancient Greek: οἶνος (oînos, “wine”) combined with μανία (manía, “insanity”).
noun
- Morbid desire for wine; dipsomania; alcoholism.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
Words closest in meaning
By meaning, not spelling — each word's AI semantic fingerprint, nearest first.