alcohol use disorder

noun

variants or less commonly alcohol-use disorder

plural alcohol use disorders also alcohol-use disorders

: a medical condition characterized by a pattern of frequent and usually excessive consumption of alcoholic beverages, by strong cravings for alcohol often accompanied by episodes of depression, anxiety, or distress, by symptoms (such as restlessness or sweating) of alcohol withdrawal, and by the impaired ability to stop or control the intake of alcohol despite adverse effects on one's work, school, or family obligations

Note: Alcohol use disorder ranges from mild to severe and is typically considered to encompass conditions also referred to as alcohol dependence, alcohol abuse, alcohol addiction, and alcoholism.

Over the long term, teen alcohol use can interfere with normal brain development and can increase the chance that the teens will develop an alcohol use disorder later in life.

—Cindy Kurman

About 40 to 50 soldiers assigned to Fort Meade are now undergoing treatment for alcohol use disorders.

—Lisa Rhodes

An estimated 18 million Americans suffer from alcohol-use disorder, as the DSM-5, the latest edition of the American Psychiatric Association's diagnostic manual, calls it. … Only about 15 percent of those with alcohol-use disorder are at the severe end of the spectrum. The rest fall somewhere in the mild-to-moderate range …

—Gabrielle Glaser

—abbreviation AUD

Examples of alcohol use disorder in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

According to Oliveira-McDonald, early intervention leads to better outcomes, and college-age students who struggle with alcohol use disorders have the opportunity to get support during a formative stage of development, which can change the trajectory of their lives. —Eric Wood, Forbes.com, 1 Aug. 2025

Nearly 400 million individuals, or 7% of the world’s population aged 15 years and older, live with alcohol use disorder. —Omer Awan, Forbes.com, 3 Aug. 2025

Warning signs of alcohol use disorder Some 28 million Americans aged 18 and older are living with alcohol-use disorder, according to 2023 estimates from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health. —Shiv Sudhakar, FOXNews.com, 10 July 2025

Following his own research into how the blood sugar regulating hormone GLP-1 could impact alcohol use disorder, as well as learning about the concept of quantum change, Jensen decided to look into what psilocybin could do for heavy drinkers. —Abhimanyu Ghoshal, New Atlas, 17 June 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1980, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for alcohol use disorder

• boarder
• border
• corder
• order
• warder
• camcorder
• recorder
• reorder
• suborder
• transborder

Medical Definition

alcohol use disorder

noun

variants also alcohol-use disorder

: a medical condition characterized by a pattern of frequent and usually excessive consumption of alcoholic beverages, by strong cravings for alcohol often accompanied by episodes of depression, anxiety, or distress, by symptoms (such as restlessness or sweating) of alcohol withdrawal, and by the impaired ability to stop or control the intake of alcohol despite adverse effects on one's work, school, or family obligations

Note: Alcohol use disorder ranges from mild to severe and is typically considered to encompass conditions also referred to as alcohol dependence, alcohol abuse, alcohol addiction, and alcoholism.

Alcohol use disorder, a problematic pattern of alcohol use accompanied by clinically significant impairment or distress, is present in up to 14% of US adults during a 1-year period, although only about 8% of affected individuals are treated in an alcohol treatment facility.

—Henry R. Kranzler and Michael Soyka, The Journal of the American Medical Association

Despite physicians' awareness of the importance of screening and probing for alcohol use disorders, one problem that might explain the failure of screening to become routine could be that physicians "aren't sure what to do once they obtain a history" that suggests a problem, Dr. [Keith A.] Nichols said.

—Naseem S. Miller, Internal Medicine News

An estimated 18 million Americans suffer from alcohol-use disorder, as the DSM-5, the latest edition of the American Psychiatric Association's diagnostic manual, calls it. … Only about 15 percent of those with alcohol-use disorder are at the severe end of the spectrum. The rest fall somewhere in the mild-to-moderate range …

—Gabrielle Glaser, The Atlantic

—abbreviation AUD