Meanings
nounhopium (uncountable)
alternative hopeium
- colloquialderogatoryidiomaticuncountableA clinging to unreasonable or unfounded hopes.
Hopium can make you see potential in the grimmest set of circumstances.
2016, Tracy Schorn, Leave a Cheater, Gain a Life: The Chump Lady's Survival Guide, Hachette, →ISBN1 more example
This way, we might avoid depression, panic, denial, and hopium for good or bad news, any of which renders us more unrealistic, unprepared, and unwell.
2020, Jack Adam Weber, Carolyn Baker, Climate Cure: Heal Yourself to Heal the Planet, Llewellyn Worldwide, →ISBN
Origin
Blend of hope + opium, as though it were a drug; regarding the surface analysis as hope + -ium, see copium § Etymology.
Full word history & related roots →Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with hopium
All rhymes →Cite this entry
APA
hopium. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/hopium
MLA
“hopium.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/hopium. Accessed November 4, 2026.
Chicago
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “hopium,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/hopium.
Source: hopium on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.