-holic

1. variant of -aholic:

   chocoholic.

-holic

suffix forming nouns

1. indicating a person having an abnormal desire for or dependence on

   workaholic

   chocoholic

Word History and Origins

Origin of -holic¹

C20: on the pattern of alcoholic

Example Sentences

After a five-minute drive I found myself trudging through the slush outside Holic castle - a rather dilapidated three-storey baroque pile just across the border in Slovakia.

From BBC

The castle - once a Habsburg summer retreat - was shuttered and deserted on the day I visited, so I made a beeline for Holic's small Christmas market, to warm up with a cup of mulled wine.

From BBC

There I met a member of the Valsa folk ensemble, Miroslav Milota, a man from Holic who's been commuting across the border to Hodonin for work for 42 years.

From BBC

"Back then the Habsburgs owned both the estates of Hodonin and Holic, so they stayed here often," Mr Vareka explained.

From BBC

"We do know Emperor Franz Joseph came through Hodonin and Holic in December 1849, on his way to inspect the imperial troops who'd put down the Hungarian rebellion in the summer," Mr Vareka told me.

From BBC

Words That Use -holic

What does -holic mean?

The combining form –holic is used like a suffix meaning “a person who has an addiction to or obsession with some object or activity.” It is occasionally used in slang and “nonce words,” that is, words coined and used only for a particular occasion.

The form –holic is derived from the ending of alcoholic, a sometimes offensive term for a person with alcoholism or alcohol use disorder. The term alcoholic and its derivations that use the form –aholic are sometimes considered offensive; referring to people with addictions as addicts or alcoholics reduces them to a label—one that has long connoted moral failure and weakness of character—and to a single trait. You can learn more about the recent changes we made to our definition of alcoholic here.

What are variants of –holic?

The form –holic is a variant of –aholic, which loses its –a– when combined with words or word elements beginning with vowels. Want to know more? Read our Words That Use article on –aholic.

Examples of -holic

One example of a slang term that features the form –holic is chocoholic, “a person who is excessively fond of chocolate.”

The choco– portion of chocoholic represents “chocolate.” The suffix –aholic means “a person who has an addiction to some activity.” Chocoholic therefore means “a person who has an addiction to chocolate.”

What are some words that use the combining form –holic?

• aquaholic
• coffeeholic
• pornoholic
• sodaholic
• videoholic

What are some other forms that –holic may be commonly confused with?

• -amic
• helic-

Not every word that ends with the exact letters –holic, e.g., acholic or Catholic, is necessarily using the combining form –holic to denote “a person who has an addiction.” Learn why acholic means “lacking bile” at our entry for the word.

Break it down!

Given the meaning of –holic, what kind of person could be described as a coffeeholic?