Skip to main content
Alcoholics Anonymous

Alcoholics Anonymous

1 3.1
A group that helps people stop drinking and stay sober
  • proper noun
  • /ˌæl.kəˈhɔ.lɪks əˈnɒ.nɪ.məs/
translation icon : Alcohólicos Anónimos
  • Temperance is now seen as a personal decision, best reinforced not by legal coercion, but by education, counseling, or peer group support, such as that offered by groups like Alcoholics Anonymous.
  • Alcoholics Anonymous (AA)
  • groups like Alcoholics Anonymous

Because the way in which like one of the places we do see the true transformation of the human heart is in like the rooms of Alcoholics Anonymous.

Autoplay Next

Examples

  • Recovery for the codependent often follows the 12-step model of Alcoholics Anonymous, and self-help groups abound that combine spirituality with behavioral and cognitive change.

    Academic text (1995)
  • The next morning, he went to his first meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous.

  • So I wound up reading the the Blue Book of Alcoholics Anonymous and that was amazing.

  • Nowhere is this method more vigorously employed than in the therapeutic efforts of members of Alcoholics Anonymous.

    Academic text (1995)
  • She has sought treatment through Alcoholics Anonymous and has been drug-free since April of 1995.

    Academic text (2000)
  • All programs emphasized a peer-oriented model of recovery that relies heavily on mutual help groups such as Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous.

    Academic text (2009)
  • Some of these people need to attend an AA (Alcoholics Anonymous) meeting and find out that admitting mistakes is the first step on the road to improvement.

    Blog text (30)
  • 12-Step programs are usually not allied with any particular religion, but the founders of Alcoholics Anonymous (the fathers of the 12-Step program) believed that the 12 Steps worked in conjunction with religion, rather than exclusively from it.

    Blog text (30)
  • Two nights a week, he went to an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting.

  • With the help of Alcoholics Anonymous, Fay has been sober for 2 1/2 years.

Synonyms

AA
vsAlcoholics Anonymous
66 3.9

A group where people meet to help each other stop drinking alcohol

is the full written name rather than the shortened form

Surface Forms

Morphology

alcoholic + anonymous

The phrase combines 'alcoholics' (people dependent on alcohol) with 'anonymous' (identities not disclosed), so its meaning as a group or organization of alcohol-dependent people who meet while preserving anonymity is directly inferable from the parts. This compositional logic is cross-linguistically common (e.g., Spanish 'Alcohólicos Anónimos'), so a B1 learner who knows both words would likely understand the MWE.

Etymology

The name Alcoholics Anonymous comes from early meetings where people with drinking problems wanted to meet without their names being known. The word Alcoholics names the people in the group and Anonymous shows their choice to stay private, and that private, shared help is why the name now means 'support groups to help people stop drinking'.