Synonyms for anodyne
- adjective
Most common
bland innocuous inoffensive uncontroversial sedative analgesic soporific
Synonyms by meaning
Adjective
1. Innocuous — noncontentious, blandly agreeable, unlikely to cause offence or debate
innocuous, inoffensive, bland, uncontroversial, harmless, neutral, unexceptionable, uncontentious, unprovocative
2. Analgesic — capable of soothing or eliminating pain
analgesic, sedative, pain-relieving, painkilling, antipain, analgetic
Definitions
- adj. 1
Capable of soothing or eliminating pain.
- adj. 2
Noncontentious, blandly agreeable, unlikely to cause offence or debate.
Near-synonyms: harmless, neutral
- adj. 3
Soothing or relaxing.
Classical music is rather anodyne.
Related words
- Word family
- anodynia
Example sentences
- bland This soup is somehow bland. Maybe add more salt...?
- innocuous Her innocuous statement was actually a veiled insult.
- inoffensive It's offensive how inoffensive you are!
- uncontroversial Africa's borders are relatively uncontroversial.
- sedative Your so-called sedative only exacerbates the pain.
- analgesic I'm going to give you an injection of an analgesic.
Popularity over time
| Word | 1850 → 2019 | Trend |
|---|---|---|
| anodyne | rising | |
| bland | rising | |
| innocuous | steady | |
| inoffensive | steady | |
| uncontroversial | rising | |
| sedative | rising |
Use in printed books, per decade from 1850 to 2019.
By length
- 5 letters
- bland1
- 6 letters
- opiate3
- 7 letters
- neutral2
- 8 letters
- harmless2, hypnotic3, sedative3, narcotic3, antipain
- 9 letters
- innocuous4, analgesic4, soporific, analgetic
- 11 letters
- inoffensive4, painkilling
- 13 letters
- uncontentious, unprovocative
- 15 letters
- uncontroversial5, unexceptionable
The small number after each word is its number of syllables (opiate3 = 3 syllables).
In other languages
- Français
- anodin
- Italiano
- anodino
- Español
- insípido
- Deutsch
- schmerzstillend
- Català
- anodí