What does cokehead mean?
Cokehead is an informal English noun referring to someone who habitually uses cocaine — in everyday terms, a cocaine addict. The word combines 'coke', a long-standing abbreviation of cocaine, with 'head', a suffix used to form words for habitual users of a substance, as in 'pothead'. The term is colloquial and typically carries a negative or judgmental connotation, so it appears mostly in casual conversation, journalism, memoirs, and fiction rather than in formal medical writing, where clinicians prefer neutral phrasing such as 'cocaine dependence' or 'substance use disorder'. Its meaning is unambiguous: unlike vaguer slang for drug users, it points specifically to cocaine, distinguishing the user from, say, a 'pothead' (marijuana) or 'junkie' (often heroin). For writers and readers alike, 'cokehead' is useful shorthand when describing addiction in narrative or conversational contexts.
nounA habitual user of cocaine; a cocaine addict.
- A person who habitually uses or is addicted to cocaine.
"After losing his job and his savings, he finally admitted he had become a cokehead."
"By the time his friends intervened, the once-promising actor had become an unmistakable cokehead."
"She wrote candidly in her memoir about her years as a cokehead on the club circuit."
Standard pluralization by adding -s.
"The support group welcomed both recovering alcoholics and former cokeheads."
The word 'coke' in 'cokehead' has nothing to do with the soft drink — it's short for cocaine, a name that itself echoes the coca leaf.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of cokehead
Cokehead was formed in American English during the twentieth century from 'coke', a clipped form of 'cocaine', combined with the '-head' suffix that denotes a habitual drug user. The element 'cocaine' derives from 'coca', the Andean plant whose leaves contain the alkaloid, ultimately via Spanish from Quechua. Parallel coinages using the same suffix include 'pothead' and 'crackhead'.
How cokehead is actually used
Informal and derogatory in register. It is judgmental slang rather than clinical language, so it is best avoided in medical or professional contexts, where terms like 'person with cocaine use disorder' are preferred.
Easily confused with cokehead
A crackhead uses crack cocaine specifically, while a cokehead refers to a habitual user of cocaine generally, usually in its powdered form.