Synonyms of intemperance

intemperance

noun

(ˌ)in-ˈtem-p(ə-)rən(t)s 

1

as in alcoholism

habitual or excessive drinking of intoxicants

in his harangue on the perils of drink, the prohibitionist claimed that intemperance has always been the number one destroyer of marriages

Synonyms & Similar Words

• alcoholism
• drunkenness
• insobriety
• inebriety
• intemperateness
• intoxication
• dissoluteness
• dipsomania
• debauchery
• bibulousness

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• temperance
• sobriety
• abstinence
• abstention
• teetotalism

2

as in excessiveness

a propensity for extremes in one's actions, beliefs, or habits

there's a wearisome intemperance in his verbal attacks against any and all who dare to disagree with him

Synonyms & Similar Words

• excessiveness
• excess
• immoderation
• exorbitance
• extremism
• insobriety
• extravagance
• intemperateness
• immoderacy
• prodigality
• unreasonableness
• irrationality
• nimiety
• radicalism

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• temperance
• moderation
• moderateness
• temperateness

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of intemperance

Rather, the term has come to stand for a range of attributes—intemperance, ordinariness, outsiderness, likability, spontaneity—that aren’t especially related philosophically, either to authenticity or to one another. — Jon Allsop, New Yorker, 5 June 2026

The power to issue absolute pardons, explicitly stipulated in the founding document, has been exploited with bipartisan intemperance. — Stephen Kotkin, Foreign Affairs, 16 Dec. 2025

But in 1832, people believed cholera was linked to intemperance and vice, which were thought to weaken the body. — William E. Watson, The Conversation, 1 Aug. 2025

Johnson was also a movement candidate, propelled into office by energized unions, frustrated progressives, and backlash from decades of police intemperance and economic inequality. — Andy Shaw, Chicago Tribune, 21 July 2025

In a situation that forbids explicit expressions of intemperance or protest, mischief is the perfect solution. — New York Times, 7 June 2022

Her attention to the vibrancy of our inner lives and to the barbed pleasure of sentimental intemperance has lately become more explicit. — Rachelvoronacote, Longreads, 10 Aug. 2020

The intemperance alienated some suffragists, and by 1875, when Anthony drafted the amendment that would bear her name, the movement had split. — USA Today, 26 Feb. 2020