caffeinated

American  

[kaf-uh-ney-tid] / ˈkæf əˌneɪ tɪd /

adjective

1. containing caffeine.

   a caffeinated soft drink.

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verb

1. the simple past tense and past participle of caffeinate.

caffeinated British  

/ ˈkæfɪˌneɪtəd /

adjective

1. 1. with no natural caffeine removed

   2. with added caffeine

2. highly stimulated by caffeine

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Etymology

Origin of caffeinated

caffeine + -ate ¹ + -ed ²

Explanation

Use caffeinated to describe anything that contains the stimulant typically found in coffee, like your caffeinated iced tea or your caffeinated co-workers who drink lattes all day. If you're drinking a beverage that has caffeine in it, it's caffeinated — and now, so are you! Tea and coffee are naturally caffeinated; in fact, if they're specifically described as caffeinated, it's to distinguish them from decaffeinated varieties, in which the caffeine has been removed. Caffeinated is from caffeine, which was coined by a 19th-century chemist from Kaffee, "coffee" in German, and the chemical suffix -ine.

Example Sentences

A bitter, caffeinated tea from South America, it's traditionally served hot with a straw, but is also available chilled.

From BBC • May 8, 2026

The strongest effects were seen in participants who drank 2-3 cups of caffeinated coffee or 1-2 cups of tea per day.

From Science Daily • Mar. 18, 2026

Individuals who consumed higher amounts of caffeinated coffee had an 18% lower risk of developing dementia compared with those who rarely or never drank it.

From Science Daily • Mar. 18, 2026

They’re revived — buzzing, even; at the glorious point in the caffeinated beverage where everything is beautiful, nothing hurts and at least one of them feels like a creative genius.

From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 10, 2026

It is something about his voice, not his pitch or his rapid-fire, caffeinated diction, but the voice itself—the familiarity of it, I guess, but also its inexhaustibility.

From "Will Grayson, Will Grayson" by John Green and David Levithan