Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Any of a group of broad-spectrum antibiotic drugs obtained from penicillium molds or produced synthetically, most active against gram-positive bacteria and used in the treatment of various infections and diseases.
Wiktionary
- n. pharmacology Any of a group of broad-spectrum antibiotics obtained from Penicillium molds or synthesized; they have a beta-lactam structure; most are active against gram-positive bacteria and used in the treatment of various infections and diseases.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (Chem.) Any of a variety of substances having a structure containing a beta-lactam ring fused to a thiirane ring, to which a carboxyl group is attached, but most commonly interpreted as benzyl penicillin. They are notable as powerful antibacterial agents of relatively low toxicity which have found extensive use in medicine for treating bacterial infections. They are categorized as one of the classes of beta-lactam antibiotic. They are produced naturally by some fungi and bacteria, and industrial production processes almost invariably start from some form of penicillin nucleus produced by fermentation of microorganisms. The fermentation products are then chemically modified to produce derivatives of enhanced potency, safety, or antibacterial spectrum. The first
penicillin to see extensive use clinically (during World War II) was penicillin G, also called benzypenicillin, and commonly simply “penicillin”.
WordNet 3.0
- n. any of various antibiotics obtained from Penicillium molds (or produced synthetically) and used in the treatment of various infections and diseases
Etymologies
- Coined by Alexander Fleming after New Latin Penicillium notatum (now Penicillium chrysogenum), a fungus from which penicillin is obtained. (Wiktionary)
- penicill(ium) + -in. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“I'd rather be nice and rotten than covered with those whiskers of mold, although the penicillin is a pretty good preservative.”
“The disease, once easily killed with a shot of penicillin, is increasingly becoming drug-resistant.”
“A shot of penicillin is a cheap cure, but many people never experience specific symptoms and the disease remains undiagnosed.”
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“Jake Gyllenhaal makes some snow shoes out of the seats of a pair of wooden chairs (still not thinking to burn them in addition to the, you know, books of Knowledge That Is Wrong) and leads an exhibition to get some penicillin from a stray oil tanker that seems to have negotiated the New York City streets and run aground next door to the NYPL without any trace of a crew on board.”
“In a time when annihilation and destruction through the inventions of man have been greater than ever before in history, the introduction of penicillin is a brilliant demonstration that human genius is just as well able to save life and combat disease.”
“The observation made by Professor Alexander Fleming which led to the discovery of penicillin, is now almost classical.”
“On the other hand, experience has confirmed what might have been surmised, namely that penicillin is not effective in cases of, e.g. tuberculosis, typhoid fever, poliomyelitis, and a number of other infectious diseases.”
“The story of penicillin is well-known throughout the world.”
“In this connection advantage was taken of the observation that the free penicillin is an acid which is more easily dissolved in certain organic solvents than in water, while its salts with alkali are more readily dissolved in water.”
“Clutterbuck, Lovell, and Raistrick, endeavoured to obtain penicillin in the pure form, but without success.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘penicillin’.
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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.
abdominal, absorbent, accelerator, accumulator, acebutolol, acetamide, acetanilide, acetate, acetic acid, acetone, acetous, acetyl and 1171 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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Not 250 Spelling Words Again
Yet more spelling words for intermediate to advanced spellers.
kyoodle, heimin, feis, menarche, cordwainer, gherao, zythum, accidie, anastomosis, boustrophedon, oleum, penicillin and 238 more...
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Arcadia, a play by Tom Stoppard
theodolite, Arcadia, carnal embrace, QED, sin of Onan, Fermat's last the..., landskip, bootboy, yesterday's upsta..., whole numbers, rice pudding, cabbages and 86 more...
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Drugs
Takes 12-15 years and $800 million to bring a drug to the market. For every 10,000 compounds that go through animal studies, 10 will go to human trials (3 phases) to get 1 to the market.
In g...ephedrine, penicillin, librium, tetracycline, xenobiotic, teratogenic, labile sites, cholinergic, prostaglandin, patient compliance, GABA, barbiturates and 72 more...
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Words For Novel
viridity, effigy, paragon, congested, acrid, lilting, clandestine, plethora, accolade, sardonic, naïve, reckoning and 285 more...
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How do you like Kipling?
Words which fit the joke format: "How do you like X-in(g)? I don't know, I've never X-ed".
kipling, duckling, fingerling, groundling, chickling, chitterling, changeling, gosling, yearling, hireling, inkling, quisling and 98 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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SERENDIPITY Accidental Discoveries in...
catalyst, vinyl, sythesis, straightforward, sincere, purify, pseudo, inhibitor, exasperate, endeavor, conception, conceive and 19 more...
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nimble wimble
hole wholes AND/OR headlight or lighthead
wimble, nimble, aureole, glory, annulus, corona, haloing, surrounding, surrealround, anthelion, gloriole, sundog and 16 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for penicillin.
jwjarvis 1928 Alexander Fleming, from random mold that flew in dish. Later cultured from green mold on grapefruit. not discovered from a lead compound, it is the lead compound. Jan 20, 2011
fbharjo paintbrush or brushedpaint etymologically Mar 6, 2009