habituation
Americannoun
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the act of habituating.
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the condition of being habituated.
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physiological tolerance to or psychological dependence on a drug, short of addiction.
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reduction of psychological or behavioral response occurring when a specific stimulus occurs repeatedly.
noun
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the act or process of habituating
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psychol the temporary waning of an innate response that occurs when it is elicited many times in succession Compare extinction
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The gradual decline of a response to a stimulus resulting from repeated exposure to the stimulus.
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Physiological tolerance for a drug resulting from repeated use.
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Psychological dependence on a drug resulting from repeated use.
Etymology
Origin of habituation
Explanation
Habituation is what happens when an organism gets used to a certain environment or stimulus. Through habituation, the squirrels in a city park often become so used to humans that they don't run away from them — and even beg them for food. If you live near an airport and hear planes taking off and landing every day, habituation occurs — eventually you get so used to the noise that you don't even notice it. The same thing happens to non-human organisms. Thanks to habituation, your pet turtle doesn't hide in his shell every time you touch him anymore. He is used to you petting him. When the world presents a new stimulus, habituation can help an animal adapt to it. Habituation comes from the Late Latin habituat, "accustomed."
Vocabulary lists containing habituation
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
“Moreover, habituation to livestock inadvertently draws wolves closer to human communities, increasing the potential for conflict despite their natural avoidance of people.”
From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 25, 2025
One memory decayed much faster than the other -- a form of memory loss necessary for habituation, the researchers noted.
From Science Daily • Nov. 19, 2024
It just seems as though through habit, habituation, comfort-sleepwalking, or myopia, we are so narrowly focused on this small tranche of cases and still treat the justices as oracles.
From Slate • Oct. 5, 2024
And so, this is about habituation and conditioning.
From Salon • Mar. 18, 2024
In the case of the Osten horse, however, attention has been diverted from auditory stimuli in the process of habituation to visual signs, and as a result ear-movements are almost completely wanting.
From Clever Hans (The horse of Mr. Von Osten): A contribution to experimental animal and human psychology by Pfungst, Oskar
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
