sop·o·rif·ic
ˌsä-pə-ˈri-fik 
1
a
: causing or tending to cause sleep
soporific drugs
b
: tending to dull awareness or alertness
2
: of, relating to, or marked by sleepiness or lethargy
: a soporific agent
specifically
: hypnotic sense 1
Did you know?
Soporific comes from Latin sopor, which means "deep sleep." That root is related to somnus, the Latin word for "sleep." Despite its meaning, somnus has been active, giving English somnolence (sleepiness), somnambulism (sleepwalking), and many other "sleepy" words.
Synonyms
Examples of soporific in a Sentence
Adjective
the soporific heat of summer
this medication is soporific, so do not drive after taking it
Recent Examples on the Web
Charles McNulty, Los Angeles Times, 9 May 2024
But now there's something distinctly soporific about it all, and certainly not the kind of writing Capote himself would have wanted associated with his name.
—Kelly Lawler, USA TODAY, 22 Feb. 2024
Perhaps appropriately, one of the last bastions is the county championship, an event steeped in tradition but sometimes a soporific one.
—Victor Mather, New York Times, 22 Sep. 2023
Presumably filmed as an educational video on the Alexander Technique, a method of posture and movement coaching, the video has all the soporific features of a winning ASMR video.
—Eliza Brooke, New York Times, 4 July 2023
The air is radiant with orange blossom; you are invited to crush geranium leaves in your hands, or to flutter your fingers through a purple haze of lavender and inhale the soporific scent.
—April Long, Town & Country, 22 June 2023
This bedtime hormone isn’t a soporific (sleep inducer) but a part of the circadian rhythm, a person’s internal biological clock that’s tuned in to the sleep-wake cycle.
—Elana Spivack, Scientific American, 5 May 2023
But that was not the case this year, which proved more soporific than Ambien.
—Jonathan M. Gitlin, Ars Technica, 1 May 2023
Only the library had survived the friars’ long sleep, though barely; even its soporific dust, felled by time, failed to fly up.
—Cynthia Ozick, Harper’s Magazine , 10 Apr. 2023
Walter Shapiro, The New Republic, 15 Oct. 2020
The filmmakers hit the reset button again, to find new conflict-laden places to go, new soporific curses to do.
—BostonGlobe.com, 17 Oct. 2019
And education’s soporific wonkitude works in its favor: Negotiations fly under the radar.
—Roger Sollenberger, The New Republic, 5 Aug. 2019
Norton, who has already completed the 12-hour sleep-coaching program with his own Tier X trainer, takes me up to the hotel’s penthouse suite to watch the sunset over the Hudson and sample a line of soporific CBD chocolates.
—Howie Kahn, WSJ, 27 Mar. 2019
Like at night, when the soft beds and gentle rhythms of the train become a potent soporific.
—Jo Rodgers, Condé Nast Traveler, 7 Sep. 2018
After a soporific first 45 minutes ended scoreless, more than 40,000 spectators at the Rostov Arena had little reason to expect the remarkable, rollicking second half that awaited them.
—Tariq Panja, New York Times, 4 July 2018
This never made sense anyway, though for the gullible few, inflamed rhetoric has apparently served as an effective soporific.
—Thomas Jewell, cleveland.com, 3 Jan. 2018
The flow is further evident in the variety of tracks, which span the gamut from lush deep house rhythms to soporific electronica and ambient compositions.
—Michael Sundius, Billboard, 30 Oct. 2017
Adjective
Musty retreads of Ibsen and Chekhov, besides being counter to the maverick spirit of their play, can be soporific endurance tests.
—Charles McNulty, Los Angeles Times, 9 May 2024
But now there's something distinctly soporific about it all, and certainly not the kind of writing Capote himself would have wanted associated with his name.
—Kelly Lawler, USA TODAY, 22 Feb. 2024
Perhaps appropriately, one of the last bastions is the county championship, an event steeped in tradition but sometimes a soporific one.
—Victor Mather, New York Times, 22 Sep. 2023
Presumably filmed as an educational video on the Alexander Technique, a method of posture and movement coaching, the video has all the soporific features of a winning ASMR video.
—Eliza Brooke, New York Times, 4 July 2023
The air is radiant with orange blossom; you are invited to crush geranium leaves in your hands, or to flutter your fingers through a purple haze of lavender and inhale the soporific scent.
—April Long, Town & Country, 22 June 2023
This bedtime hormone isn’t a soporific (sleep inducer) but a part of the circadian rhythm, a person’s internal biological clock that’s tuned in to the sleep-wake cycle.
—Elana Spivack, Scientific American, 5 May 2023
But that was not the case this year, which proved more soporific than Ambien.
—Jonathan M. Gitlin, Ars Technica, 1 May 2023
Only the library had survived the friars’ long sleep, though barely; even its soporific dust, felled by time, failed to fly up.
—Cynthia Ozick, Harper’s Magazine , 10 Apr. 2023
Noun
Despite the vicious—and mostly ineffective—GOP attacks on Biden’s mental acuity, the former vice president gave listeners a level of detail Thursday night that bordered on the soporific.
—Walter Shapiro, The New Republic, 15 Oct. 2020
The filmmakers hit the reset button again, to find new conflict-laden places to go, new soporific curses to do.
—BostonGlobe.com, 17 Oct. 2019
And education’s soporific wonkitude works in its favor: Negotiations fly under the radar.
—Roger Sollenberger, The New Republic, 5 Aug. 2019
Norton, who has already completed the 12-hour sleep-coaching program with his own Tier X trainer, takes me up to the hotel’s penthouse suite to watch the sunset over the Hudson and sample a line of soporific CBD chocolates.
—Howie Kahn, WSJ, 27 Mar. 2019
Like at night, when the soft beds and gentle rhythms of the train become a potent soporific.
—Jo Rodgers, Condé Nast Traveler, 7 Sep. 2018
After a soporific first 45 minutes ended scoreless, more than 40,000 spectators at the Rostov Arena had little reason to expect the remarkable, rollicking second half that awaited them.
—Tariq Panja, New York Times, 4 July 2018
This never made sense anyway, though for the gullible few, inflamed rhetoric has apparently served as an effective soporific.
—Thomas Jewell, cleveland.com, 3 Jan. 2018
The flow is further evident in the variety of tracks, which span the gamut from lush deep house rhythms to soporific electronica and ambient compositions.
—Michael Sundius, Billboard, 30 Oct. 2017
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'soporific.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Dictionary Entries Near soporific
Cite this Entry
“Soporific.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/soporific. Accessed 3 Jun. 2024.
Copy CitationMedical Definition
soporific
1 of 2 adjective
so·po·rif·ic
-ˈrif-ik
: causing or tending to cause sleep
soporific
2 of 2 noun
: a soporific agent (as a drug)
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