codependence
codependence Lexical Profile
codependence Game Scores & Validity
• noun
Excessive emotional or psychological reliance on a partner, typically one who requires support on account of an illness or addiction, often resulting in a dysfunctional or enabling relationship.
"The therapist helped the couple recognize how their years of codependence had prevented both of them from growing as individuals."
The state of being mutually dependent or reliant on one another.
"Economic globalization has created a complex web of financial codependence among major trading nations."
Word Nuance & Usage
Do not confuse 'codependence' with 'interdependence'; while 'interdependence' describes a healthy, balanced mutual reliance between autonomous parties, 'codependence' in psychology carries a strongly negative connotation of enabling, unhealthy, or dysfunctional reliance.
• Rhymes for codependence
• Nearby Words
Word Origin & Etymology
Coined in the late 1970s in the context of substance abuse treatment (originally relating to 'co-alcoholism') by attaching the prefix 'co-' (mutually) to 'dependence', from Latin 'dependere' (to hang from).