Discussion Forum—A Way with Words, a fun radio show and podcast about language

Are you hammered, sloshed or just tipsy?. A study says scientists looking at alcohol abuse should embrace colloquial terms for intoxication and insert them into their stuffy research lexicon. While “drunk” is the standard term used in many questionnaires that assess imbibing levels and patterns among university students and other groups, it fails to capture gradations of inebriation, the paper says.

See the sidebar for a demonstration of how three people would sort the words for "drunk" from from least to most inebriated.