Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A substance, such as penicillin or streptomycin, produced by or derived from certain fungi, bacteria, and other organisms, that can destroy or inhibit the growth of other microorganisms. Antibiotics are widely used in the prevention and treatment of infectious diseases.
- adj. Of or relating to antibiotics.
- adj. Of or relating to antibiosis.
- adj. Destroying life or preventing the inception or continuance of life.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Opposed to a belief in the presence or possibility of life.
- In biology, injurious or deadly to the living substance: as, an antibiotic secretion.
Wiktionary
- n. pharmacology Any substance that can destroy or inhibit the growth of bacteria and similar microorganisms.
- adj. pharmacology Of or relating to antibiotics.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A chemical substance derived from a mold or bacterium that kills microorganisms and cures infections.
- n. any chemical substance having therapeutically useful antibacterial or antifungal activity; -- used commonly but loosely for synthetic as well as natural antimicrobial agents.
- adj. of or pertaining to an antibiotic.
- adj. having antimicrobial activity; capable of killing microbes.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a chemical substance derivable from a mold or bacterium that can kill microorganisms and cure bacterial infections
- adj. of or relating to antibiotic drugs
Etymologies
- From French antibiotique, coined in 1889 by P. Vuillemin from anti- and biotique, from Ancient Greek βιωτικός (biōtikós, "concerning or relating to life") (from βίος (bíos, "life"), from Proto-Indo-European *gʷeih₃w- (“to live”)), perhaps influenced by ἀντίϐιος (antíbios, "opposed") (Wiktionary)
Examples
“The company's news, better than the market expected, was overshadowed by Smithfield's part in another story: The Russian Federation banned imports of pork from more U.S. plants because of what it called antibiotic contamination.”
“Perhaps the most well known antibiotic is penicillin.”
“When the antibiotic is found to have a fatal side effect, the company buries victims in a mass grave outside of town and kills others who know of the problem.”
“The damned antibiotic is making me ill, which always happens, and always surprises me, regardless.”
“So my antibiotic is exposed until I can take it in the morning.”
“The reason is that neither single nor double point mutations to the enzyme allowed it to destroy the certain antibiotic (called "imipenem").”
“The reason I am told and Lyme doctors concur, that long term antibiotic use should be considered when Lyme disease is suspected is because of the following:”
Michealene Cristini Risley: Lyme disease-where is "House" when you need him?
“They are commonly applied by insurance companies in restricting coverage for long-term antibiotic treatment or other medical care and also strongly influence physician treatment decisions.”
Michealene Cristini Risley: Lyme: Emerging Disease or Hidden Epidemic?
“Ironically, the antibiotic is to prevent problems that might crop up during chemo.”
“In its summary of the investigation, the attorney general's office said insurance companies have relied on the 2006 guidelines to deny coverage for long-term antibiotic treatments.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘antibiotic’.
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SCIE - EU nomenclature
All the scientific words found in the official EU nomenclature. For the screening I used Vocabgrabber of the Visual Thesaurus.
silicon, silica, shrimp, shelve, shallot, serine, seedling, septic, secretin, seaweed, screening, Scomber and 1171 more...
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Beer and Brewing
Words about beer and the making of it.
airlock, bung, carboy, diversol, hops, mashtun, beer, sparge, trub, wort, malt, malt liquor and 184 more...
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IMCO - EU nomenclature
includes words of the "Prodcom list"
abaca, abdominal, abrasive, absorbent, absorber, accelerator, accessory, account book, accumulator, acebutolol, acetaldehyde, acetamide and 4515 more...
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Triphthongs
Words with triphthongs in
layer, player, payee, pompeii, tyre, fire, higher, liar, employer, soya, paranoia, sequoia and 14 more...
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anti-
against, hostile; operating against; preventing, curing, neutralizing
antilabor, antiballistic, antitoxin, antiperistalsis, antipope, antichrist, antithesis, anti-inflammatory, antimatter, antibiotic, antibody, anticlimax and 1 more...
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SAT PSAT ALPHABETICAL A
abandon, abash, abate, abjure, ablution, abnegate, abominable, aboriginal, abortive, abrade, abridge, abrogate and 172 more...
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breeze debris
autodidact, hollographic, neurotheology, pensive, grapple, nondual, integral, phantasmagoria, burnished, capacious, ginger, astral and 120 more...
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Sat Vocabulary List
abandon, abash, abate, abjure, ablution, abnegate, abominable, aboriginal, abortive, abrade, abridge, abrogate and 2155 more...
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-biosis, -biotic
denoting or relating to a mode of life
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Greek Spelling Bee List
need to know these words!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
lethargy, biopsy, enthusiasm, odyssey, synonym, calypso, character, eclectic, chronology, cosmetic, cynical, hypothesis and 128 more...
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Words Some People Can't Pronounce, No...
vietnam, nuclear, vietnamese, macrame, sandwich, peripheral, remuneration, wash, mischievous, february, wednesday, spaghetti and 38 more...
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Buggin' out
bacteria, antibiotic, spirochete, anthrax, gram positive, gram negative, tuberculosis, bacillus, typhus, rickettsia prowaz..., orientia tsutsuga..., vaccine and 24 more...
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chandler stinks
words used by the NYT's perfume critic, Chandler Burr in a recent article 'reviewing' three fragrances, or in my satirical response to Chandler's review.
satire
Let's fuel this...masterly, maple, muscular, petulant, machismo, virtuosity, graphite, mouthwatering, lemongrass, gunpowder, blood-orange, velvet and 33 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for antibiotic.
yarb Compare pronunciation of the second syllable here with that in antigen. Nov 30, 2010
chelster I prefer -tee- for the second syllable of this word (and others beginning with the prefix anti-), and the evidence of my ears says this has been the dominant pronunciation in cultivated American speech for some time. The variant with short i as in fit (listen to the American Heritage Dictionary’s pronunciation) appears in older and some current dictionaries but is far from prevalent in American speech today. In fact, the Oxford Dictionary of Pronunciation (2003) says the short i is British and -tee- is American. The variant with a long i in the second syllable (like tie) appears in dictionaries but is an overpronunciation. (“Don’t bother with long i” in anti-, the orthoepist Alfred H. Holt advised in his 1937 guide You Don’t Say. “Just rhyme anti- with panty.”) Also avoid pronouncing the antepenultimate syllable -bi- like be; say it like by. — The Orthoepist Nov 30, 2010