SOBRIETY Synonyms: 73 Similar and Opposite Words

sobriety

noun

sə-ˈbrī-ə-tē

Definition of sobriety

as in intentness

a mental state free of jesting or trifling an abrupt sobriety fell over the group when they heard the news

Synonyms & Similar Words

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

as in temperance

voluntary restraint in the satisfaction of one's appetites although she can afford to wear anything, she practices a sartorial sobriety that bespeaks class and taste

Synonyms & Similar Words

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Recent Examples of sobriety At one recent event, Radke joined Summer House castmate KJ Dillard and members of the nonprofit Bigvision for a discussion that brought together different perspectives on sobriety, loss and mental health. — Dave Quinn, PEOPLE, 8 Sep. 2026 In mid-August, Great Smoky Mountains National Park officials shared the location and date of a sobriety checkpoint ahead of time on social media. — Lily Knoepp, Charlotte Observer, 3 Sep. 2026 Tommy White Rated PG-13, 1 hour 37 minutes Hank, an American living in Australia, is now trying to be a gentle giant, one who’s celebrating his one-year anniversary of sobriety and who clearly suffers from lingering emotional trauma. — Frank Scheck, HollywoodReporter, 2 Sep. 2026 Another crash in a difficult cycle The golf champion failed a sobriety test in March after crashing his car not far from his home in Martin County, Florida, according to an arrest affidavit. — Holly Yan, CNN Money, 1 Sep. 2026 See All Example Sentences for sobriety

Recent Examples of Synonyms for sobriety

Noun

Scientists are beginning to treat gravity almost like a drug, varying its strength, duration, and frequency on the human body to learn what dose might keep astronauts healthy and whether the same stimulus could help rehabilitate patients on Earth.

— Stefanie Waldek, Space.com, 29 Sep. 2026
The off-the-shoulder sleeves harkened to a slight Victorian era style, with a voluminous design and gravity-defying appearance.

— Julia Teti, Footwear News, 25 Sep. 2026

Definition of gravity

Noun

One of his favorite artifacts is a Humber bicycle from 1889 or 1890, used when a Baptist seminary was in the community, which was founded as a Baptist temperance area.

— Melinda Moore, Chicago Tribune, 24 Sep. 2026
Over his shoulder was an enormous portrait of the hatchet-wielding temperance crusader Carrie Nation, an icon of resistance to the excesses of the first Gilded Age, when similar discontent had roiled the prairies.

— Kyle Paoletta, Harpers Magazine, 22 Sep. 2026

Definition of temperance

Noun

Elizabeth Strout illustrates a kind man with an endearing earnestness about him who struggles with the fact that the world is not so simple anymore.

— Kat Chen, Condé Nast Traveler, 23 Sep. 2026
The diaries—particularly in Julian Sachs’s unexpurgated version, which captures Pavese’s alternating earnestness, archness, and pungent vulgarity—pose something of a problem.

— Max Norman, Harpers Magazine, 22 Sep. 2026

Definition of earnestness

Noun

By May 2026, all 11 of xAI’s original cofounders had departed the company, a cascade that began in earnest in February when Tony Wu, described as one of the most operationally central cofounders, announced his resignation.

— Nick Lichtenberg, Fortune, 24 June 2026
Modern viticulture began in earnest here in the 1970s before blossoming in the ’90s.

— Sam Stone, Bon Appetit Magazine, 22 June 2026