Word.ws English Dictionary

ADHD

/ˌeɪ diː ˌeɪtʃ ˈdiː/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

rare/ˌeɪ diː ˈeɪtʃ diː/

ADHD is the initialism of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

Adjective

ADHD (comparative more ADHD, superlative most ADHD)

  1. (attributive) Of or relating to attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
    • an ADHD person
    • some ADHD medication
  2. (informal, predicative) As of or relating to attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
    • My brother is ADHD.
    • I'm too ADHD to sit for that long.

Meaning of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder

Noun

attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (uncountable)

  1. A developmental disorder in which a person has difficulty to concentrate and a persistent pattern of impulsiveness and inattention, with or without a component of hyperactivity.
    • Having attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD, is associated with a shorter life expectancy and a greater risk of mental health issues, according to a new study of more than 30,000 people with the disorder in the United Kingdom.2025 January 23, Kristen Rogers, “People with ADHD have shorter life expectancy and higher risk of mental health issues, study finds”, in CNN

Verb

ADHD (third-person singular simple present ADHDs, present participle ADHDing, simple past and past participle ADHDed)

  1. (colloquial, intransitive, offensive, sometimes) To act in a way thought to be characteristic of a person with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
    • I had to ADHD my way through my twenties without a diagnosis.

Forms of ADHD

Noun
alternative formA.D.H.D.
Adjective
comparativemore ADHD
superlativemost ADHD
Verb
third-person singular presentADHDs
present participleADHDing
past participleADHDed
pastADHDed

Words formed from ADHD

Questions about ADHD

What does ADHD mean?
ADHD means of or relating to attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
What is ADHD the initialism of?
ADHD is the initialism of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
What part of speech is ADHD?
ADHD can be an adjective or a verb.
How do you pronounce ADHD?
ADHD is pronounced /ˌeɪ diː ˌeɪtʃ ˈdiː/.

Words near ADHD in the dictionary

  1. Adharbayjan
  2. adharma
  3. adharmas
  4. adharmic
  5. adhavasinone
  6. ADHD
  7. ADHD-C
  8. ADHD-PH/I
  9. ADHD-PI
  10. ADHDed
  11. ADHDer

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: ADHD (page history and authors); attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (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.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-ADHD.wav.

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