Word.ws English Dictionary

ad nauseam

UK/ˌæd ˈnɔːziəm//ˌæd ˈnɔziəm/

ad nauseam adverb: to a nauseating or sickening degree.

Adverb

ad nauseam (not comparable)

  1. To a nauseating or sickening degree.
  2. Having been done or repeated so often that it has become annoying or tiresome.
    • The internet really is just nothing more than the same 3 sites sharing each others stuff ad nauseam
    • A drunk person was repeating the same old story ad nauseam.

Adjective

ad nauseam (not comparable)

  1. Done or repeated so often that it becomes annoying or tiresome.
    • The Feelings album flew off the shelves, and Albert became a pop sensation—until, thanks to airplay ad nauseam, radio listeners grew weary of his sentiments.1990, Wayne Jancik, The Billboard Book of One-Hit Wonders, →ISBN, page 325

Forms of ad nauseam

alternative misspellingad nauseum

Origin of ad nauseam

Unadapted borrowing from Latin ad nauseam, from ad (“to”) + nauseam (“sea-sickness, sickness, nausea”), accusative of nausea.

Questions about ad nauseam

What does ad nauseam mean?
Ad nauseam means to a nauseating or sickening degree.
What part of speech is ad nauseam?
Ad nauseam can be an adverb or an adjective.
How do you pronounce ad nauseam?
Ad nauseam is pronounced /ˌæd ˈnɔːziəm/ (UK).

Words near ad nauseam in the dictionary

  1. ad litteram
  2. ad loc
  3. ad loc.
  4. ad modum
  5. ad modum Donders
  6. ad nauseam
  7. ad nauseum
  8. ad orientem
  9. ad out
  10. ad particle
  11. ad particles

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: ad nauseam (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-ad nauseam.ogg.

Cite this entry: “ad nauseam.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/ad_nauseam. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.