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dependence

UK/dɪˈpɛndəns/
nounC1Occasional — familiar, but not everyday · #11,140 of 15,258mostly written

Dependence is the state of needing something or somebody. Financial dependence, dependence on imports, drug dependence.

In medicine it has a precise meaning distinct from addiction: dependence is the body adapting so that stopping causes withdrawal, which can happen with drugs nobody craves. Economic dependence on one export is a named vulnerability. Note dependency, which overlaps; and that the Latin means to hang from.

Definitions of dependence

  1. 1noundependenceThe state of needing something or somebody.C1

    “The country wants to reduce its dependence on imported oil and gas.”

dependence is a state of needing.

Where it comes from

Middle French dependance comes from Latin dependere — de plus pendere, to hang. Pendant, suspend and pension come from the same hanging.

  1. Middle French

    dépendance

  2. English, today

    dependence

From Middle French dépendance. Morphologically depend + ence.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

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dependence in the wild

  • Some definitions require evidence of dependence and withdrawal.

    Alcoholism

  • Conversely, dependence is when the occurrence of one event does affect the likelihood of another.

    Independence (probability theory)

  • In order for the symptoms of withdrawal to occur, one must have first developed a form of drug dependence.

    Drug withdrawal

  • Alcohol dependence is a previous psychiatric diagnosis in which an individual is physically or psychologically dependent upon alcohol (also chemically known as ethanol).

    Alcohol dependence

  • Addiction and dependence are important components of opioid use disorder.

    Opioid use disorder

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

From Project Gutenberg, public domain. These sentences are from real books, shown to illustrate the word at work.

Related words

the dépendance family

dependencydependence

dependence — used about once every 8,182 pages · #11,140 · point at the bar for the others

  • depend
  • independence