inebriated vs intoxicated

The core difference

• inebriated — drunk on alcohol. The word is tied to drink.
• intoxicated — impaired by any substance, alcohol included.

Why the legal system prefers intoxicated

Offences are written to cover more than drink. Phrases such as driving while intoxicated, or under the influence of an intoxicant, are drafted so they apply whatever the substance was. Using inebriated would leave an obvious gap.

Register

Both are formal. Inebriated is the more distinctly literary of the two and appears more in writing than speech, often with a faint note of comedy — it is the sort of word used to be delicate about someone being drunk. Intoxicated is clinical and neutral.

The poison inside intoxicated

Intoxicated comes from Latin toxicum, poison — which itself comes from Greek toxikon pharmakon, the drug used on arrows, from toxon, a bow. The word for poison in English therefore descends from a word about archery.

Inebriated comes from Latin ebrius, drunk. The related sober is its opposite by way of sobrius, and ebriety survives as a rare formal noun for drunkenness.

The figurative sense

Both words are used for states resembling drunkenness — intoxicated by success, inebriated with power. Intoxicating in particular has largely detached from substances and now most often describes something thrilling: an intoxicating performance implies no chemicals at all.