Word
stoned
US/ˈstoʊnd/
UK/stˈəʊnd/
Definition
adj. feeling very relaxed or strange because of using a drug like marijuana. It is a casual word for being high.
adj. experiencing the physiological and psychological effects of a narcotic drug, particularly cannabis. Used predicatively after linking verbs like 'be', 'look', or 'get'.
Examples
“They sat on the couch looking completely stoned.”
“He realized he was too stoned to drive home, so he decided to call a taxi instead.”
“The film captures that specific era of cinema where characters are often depicted as perpetually stoned, drifting through life with a detached and hazy perspective on their surroundings.”
Examples
simple
“They sat on the couch looking completely stoned.”
contextual
“He realized he was too stoned to drive home, so he decided to call a taxi instead.”
complex
“The film captures that specific era of cinema where characters are often depicted as perpetually stoned, drifting through life with a detached and hazy perspective on their surroundings.”
Usage
Primarily used as a predicative adjective following a linking verb; rarely used attributively before a noun.
Real-World Examples
“This has led to police believing she may have been stoned to death.” “He recently lectured the Monterey Pop Festival audience, chiding them for being stoned while listening to his music, which he claims should be sufficient to turn them on.” “From those stoned teenage days, Marat knew a part of him would be forever British.” Etymology
From Middle English stoned (simple past) and stoned, istoned (past participle), equivalent to stone + -ed. The etymology for the sense of "exhilarated, intoxicated by substances", which originated in American English in the mid-20th century, is not fully clear. It could be derived from stone drunk, a common slang expression from the mid-19th to early-20th century. It is more frequently theorized to be a phono-semantic matching of Italian-American slang stunod (“dazzled, stupid”), from Italian stonato (“out of tune, off-key”). In 1952, Life Magazine listed it in a glossary of bop musician slang, in the sense of "drunk, captivated, ecstatic, sent out of this world" (see quote). This could lend further credence to the idea of the word originating from a musical term.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- Exam level
- CambridgeCambridgeCambridge English QualificationsThe exam suite from Cambridge University Press & Assessment, from A1 Movers up to C2 Proficiency. The benchmark names double as CEFR labels.C1 AdvancedIELTSIELTSInternational English Language Testing SystemThe 0–9 band test co-owned by the British Council, IDP, and Cambridge. Used for university entry, work, and migration.7.0–8.0TOEFL iBTTOEFL iBTTest of English as a Foreign Language, Internet-Based TestETS's academic English test, the standard route for US university admissions. Scored 0–120, with a 1–6 scale since 2026.1–6 scale: 5.0–5.595–113TOEICTOEICTest of English for International CommunicationETS's workplace English test, big in Japan and Korea. Listening & Reading scores 10–990 and tops out at C1.945–990
- Frequency
- Frequent
- Level
- C1 · Advanced
- Updated
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