Sober

How to spell sober

5 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce sober

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does sober mean?

1. adjectiveNot affected by alcohol; not drunk.
2. adjectiveSerious, calm, and restrained in manner, mood, or appearance.

Sober in a sentence

• He stayed completely sober at the office party so he could drive home.

• The lawyer wore a sober grey suit to the hearing.

• The designated driver remained sober throughout the wedding reception.

• After the diagnosis the family took a more sober view of their finances.

Where does sober come from?

Language of origin: Latin

Sober comes from the Latin sobrius, which meant 'not drunk' or 'temperate'. That adjective was formed as the direct opposite of ebrius, meaning 'drunk' or 'intoxicated', with the prefix so- (a form of se-, 'without' or 'apart from') signalling the absence of drunkenness. The word passed into English through the Old French sobre during the 1300s, at first describing a person who was not affected by alcohol and then broadening to mean serious, calm, and restrained in manner or appearance. The same ebrius root that sober quietly negates still survives in the rarer English word 'inebriated'. For spelling, the trap is the unstressed second syllable: it sounds like a vague '-er' and tempts writers toward '-or', but the ending is plainly -er.

How the word is built

• sob- (from Latin sobrius: not drunk)
• -er