Meaning & use
alcoholic drink
Last updated
Meaning
nouncountable
A beverage containing ethanol, such as beer, wine, or spirits, that can make you drunk.
Grammar: Countable: you can say an alcoholic drink or two alcoholic drinks.
Patterns
- an alcoholic drink
- a strong alcoholic drink
- serve alcoholic drinks
The hotel bar serves a wide range of alcoholic drinks.
She ordered a non-alcoholic cocktail because she was driving.
In many countries you must be eighteen to buy an alcoholic drink.
Word forms
| plural | alcoholic drinks |
|---|
Common combinations
- a strong alcoholic drink
- Brandy is a strong alcoholic drink.
- serve alcoholic drinks
- The restaurant does not serve alcoholic drinks on Sundays.
- a non-alcoholic drink
- They offered us a non-alcoholic drink instead of champagne.
- an alcoholic beverage
- The label lists the alcohol content of the alcoholic beverage.
- drink alcohol
- He decided to stop drinking alcohol for health reasons.
Synonyms and how they differ
- booze
- Informal and often slightly disapproving; better avoided in formal writing.
- liquor
- Mainly American and usually refers to strong distilled spirits rather than beer or wine.
- tipple
- Informal British, often humorous; suggests a person's usual drink.
Opposites
Word family
- alcohol noun
- The substance in drinks that makes people drunk.
- alcoholic adjective
- Containing alcohol.
- non-alcoholic adjective
- Containing no alcohol.
- alcoholism noun
- A medical condition of being unable to control drinking.
Commonly confused: alcoholic drink or alcoholic?
alcoholic drink vs alcoholic
As a noun, an alcoholic is a person who depends on alcohol, not a drink. Use alcoholic drink or alcoholic beverage for the drink itself.
Practice
Which sentence uses the phrase correctly?
Choose one answer.
'An alcoholic drink' is correct because the adjective begins with a vowel sound, so we use 'an', and 'alcoholic' is the adjective form. Option 1 uses 'alcoholic' as a noun meaning a person, option 2 uses the wrong article, and option 3 uses the noun 'alcohol' where an adjective is needed.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “alcoholic drink”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.