heroinware

H4E1R1O1I1N1W4A1R1E1

noun

An addictive computer game, especially one played to the extent it interferes with the everyday life of the player.

OriginEnglish softwarebf. ← Middle English ware ← Old English waru →
Scrabble 16
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Meanings

nounheroinware (uncountable)
  1. slanguncountablevideo gamesAn addictive computer game, especially one played to the extent it interferes with the everyday life of the player.
    1 more example

    Luckily, Jaffe found refuge and eventual salvation with On-Line Gamers Anonymous, one of several online self-help groups that have sprung up to deal with the fallout from electronic entertainment they call heroinware. Its forums are swollen with refugees of various online worlds, all with harrowing stories of runaway gaming habits, lives ruined, friends lost, marriages broken.

    2003 April 3, David McCandless, “Just one more go…”, in The Guardian

Origin

  1. GermanHeroin
  2. Englishheroin
  3. Proto-Indo-European*sem-
  4. Proto-Germanic*samþuz /*samftuz
  5. Proto-West Germanic*samft(ī)
  6. Old Englishsōfte
  7. Middle Englishsofte
  8. Englishsoft
  9. Proto-Germanic*warō
  10. Proto-West Germanic*waru
  11. Old Englishwaru
  12. Middle Englishware
  13. Englishsoftwarebf.
  14. Englishheroinware

From heroin + -ware.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

heroinware. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/heroinware

MLA

“heroinware.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/heroinware. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “heroinware,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/heroinware.

Source: heroinware on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.