Some people may refer to alcohol abuse as alcoholism, but this is not a clinically relevant term. In professional practice, alcoholism is described with the term “alcohol use disorder.” Typically, when people use a phrase like alcoholism, they are referring to a person who abuses alcohol and experiences significant consequences, much like a person with an alcohol use disorder does. Alcoholism may also refer to the fact that someone is dependent upon alcohol, which also suggests some level of alcohol use disorder.