gateway drug

gate·way drug

G g

Transcription

- US Pronunciation
- US IPA
- [geyt-wey druhg]
- /ˈgeɪtˌweɪ drʌg/

- US Pronunciation
- US IPA
- [geyt-wey druhg]
- /ˈgeɪtˌweɪ drʌg/

Definitions of gateway drug words

noun gateway drug any mood-altering drug, as a stimulant or tranquilizer, that does not cause physical dependence but may lead to the use of addictive drugs, as heroin. 1
countable noun gateway drug A gateway drug is a drug such as cannabis that is believed by some people to lead to the use of more harmful drugs such as heroin or cocaine. 0
noun gateway drug a recreational drug such as cannabis, the use of which is believed by some to encourage the user to try stronger drugs 0
noun gateway drug An addictive substance that is seen as relatively harmless by itself, but is believed to encourage the user to experiment with more harmful substances. 0

See all 4 definitions of gateway drug

Information block about the term

Origin of gateway drug

First appearance:

before 1985

One of the 1% newest English words

First recorded in 1985-90

Historical Comparancy

Parts of speech for Gateway drug

noun

adjective

verb

adverb

pronoun

preposition

conjunction

determiner

exclamation

Full grammatical hierarchy of Gateway drug

gateway drug popularity

A pretty common term. Usually people know it’s meaning, but prefer to use a more spread out synonym. About 34% of English native speakers know the meaning and use word.

According to our data about 64% of words is more used. This is a rare but used term. It occurs in the pages of specialized literature and in the speech of educated people.

gateway drug usage trend in Literature

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