hedonic
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.
Psychologists call this hedonic adaptation: the tendency to absorb improvements into our baseline until they no longer feel like gains.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 18, 2026
The BLS also tries to identify price changes by controlling for improvements in product quality for a lot of goods—including computers, internet access, phone plans, and cars—through a process called hedonic price adjustment.
From Slate ● Apr. 24, 2026
He explained that to younger people like his students, collecting and renting DVDs is a way “to be able to slow down and get off this hedonic treadmill of ‘where’s my next stimulus coming from.’”
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 23, 2026
Psychologists differentiate between two aspects of happiness: "hedonic wellbeing," related to emotional experiences, and "eudemonic wellbeing," which concerns meaning and purpose in life.
From BBC ● Dec. 25, 2024
But the evolutionary process has been clumsy; we are not properly adjusted; we become the victims of ideas fixes; ideas and activities obsess us quite without relation to their hedonic value.
From Problems of Conduct by Drake, Durant
