Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The state of being free of pathogenic microorganisms.
  • noun The process of removing pathogenic microorganisms or protecting against infection by such organisms.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Absence of living germs of disease, putrefaction, or fermentation.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun State of being aseptic; the methods or processes of asepticizing.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun pathology The state of being free from sepsis.
  • noun pathology The process of removing pathogenic organisms or protecting against such organisms.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun (of non-living objects) the state of being free of pathogenic organisms
  • noun the process of inhibiting the growth and multiplication of microorganisms

Etymologies

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Examples

  • Vulvovaginitis is a very contagious disease, and before the days of hospital asepsis, which is so perfectly maintained today in our large institutions, this disease used to go right through a children's ward because of carelessness in the handling of soiled diapers, etc. The sign of this disease is a yellow-white vaginal discharge, while the surrounding skin covering the inside of the thighs and buttocks may be very much reddened.

    The Mother and Her Child William S. Sadler

  • We are not questioning the value of asepsis, which is only a learned phrase to express absolute surgical cleanliness.

    An Ethical Problem Or, Sidelights upon Scientific Experimentation on Man and Animals Albert Leffingwell 1880

  • The development of penicillin during World War II added the last "A" to modern surgery's triad of anesthesia, asepsis, and antibiotics.

    Gowns, Germs and Steel William Bynum 2011

  • By the 1880s, antisepsis had been superseded by asepsis, which involved the scrupulous attention to maintaining sterile operating conditions.

    Gowns, Germs and Steel William Bynum 2011

  • Crude surgery without anesthesia or asepsis has been replaced by modern painless surgery with its exquisite technical refinement.

    The Emperor of All Maladies Siddhartha Mukherjee 2010

  • Crude surgery without anesthesia or asepsis has been replaced by modern painless surgery with its exquisite technical refinement.

    The Emperor of All Maladies Siddhartha Mukherjee 2010

  • Crude surgery without anesthesia or asepsis has been replaced by modern painless surgery with its exquisite technical refinement.

    The Emperor of All Maladies Siddhartha Mukherjee 2010

  • But back then, the fear-mongering did some good, by cleaning up the worst asepsis in the inner cities, and introducing the concept of hygiene as desirable for all.

    Chris Weigant: Germs Don't Care If You Are Legal Or Not 2009

  • The CDC has reported that at least half of the two million nosocomial infections, and half of the ninety-eight thousand deaths estimated by the IOM to result annually from these infections, could be prevented if physicians and the hospital staff under their supervision would follow the handwashing and related policies on asepsis which have been established as standard procedure in each acute-care hospital in the nation.

    Doctors Are Spreading Infections That Kill Patients 2007

  • He returned to his desk, took down his two massive volumes of The Complete and Concise Home Doctor, and began to revise the sections that dealt with 'bleeding; dressings; shock; tourniquet; bullet wounds; burns; cuts; stabs; asepsis; drainage and irrigation of wounds; lockjaw; pus; trepanning for the relief of depressed fractures of the skull.'

    Captain Corelli's Mandolin De Bernieres, Louis 2003

  • The controversy surrounding surgical gloves was spurred by a growing movement promoting asepsis (complete sterility) over antisepsis (killing bacteria after they got into a wound).

    The Surgeons Who Said No to Gloves | JSTOR Daily Jessica Romeo 2020

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