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anodyne

/ˈæn.ə.daɪn/adjective, noun

anodyne is an adjective meaning “Capable of soothing or eliminating pain” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled A-N-O-D-Y-N-E and has 3 syllables, and it appears about once in every 7 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data).

What does anodyne mean?

adjective

  1. 1

    Capable of soothing or eliminating pain.

  2. 2

    Soothing or relaxing.

    Classical music is rather anodyne.

  3. 3

    Noncontentious, blandly agreeable, unlikely to cause offence or debate.

    Near-synonyms: harmless, neutral

noun

  1. 1

    Any medicine or other agent that relieves pain.

  2. 2

    A source of relaxation or comfort.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How do you pronounce anodyne?

  • US /ˈæn.ə.daɪn/

Anodyne has 3 syllables (counted from the pronunciation).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-anodyne.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of anodyne

  • more anodyne comparative
  • most anodyne superlative
  • anodynes plural

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How common is anodyne?

Anodyne appears about once in every 7 million words in written English, the 76,798th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

Anodyne in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Germanschmerzstillend, analgetisch, lindernd, beruhigend (capable of soothing or eliminating pain), wohltuend (soothing or relaxing)
Portugueseanódino, antálgico, paliativo (capable of soothing or eliminating pain), relaxante (soothing or relaxing), analgésico (any medicine or other agent that relieves pain), reconfortante (a source of relaxation or comfort)
Spanishanodino (capable of soothing or eliminating pain), relajante, tranquilizante (soothing or relaxing)
Frenchapaisant (soothing or relaxing), analgésique (any medicine or other agent that relieves pain), calmant (a source of relaxation or comfort)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does anodyne come from?

From Middle English anodine, from Medieval Latin anōdynos (“stilling or relieving pain”), from Ancient Greek ἀνώδυνος (anṓdunos, “free from pain”), from ἀν- (an-, “without”) + ὀδύνη (odúnē, “pain”). Adjective sense “noncontentious” probably through French anodin (“harmless, trivial”), of same origin.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).