painkiller
Americannoun
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painkillers
plural
noun
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an analgesic drug or agent
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anything that relieves pain
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of painkiller
Explanation
A painkiller is a medicine that's used to dull or relieve pain, like the painkiller your dad gives you when you have a bad headache. Painkillers are meant to do exactly what their name says: to kill pain. You can also call this kind of medication an analgesic. These range from aspirin and acetaminophen, which are sold over the counter to treat minor aches and pains, to powerful anesthetics administered by doctors before surgery. If you get your wisdom teeth removed, you'll most likely need a painkiller during and after the procedure.
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.
See Examples For:
Last year, Lilly acquired SiteOne Therapeutics for $1 billion, in turn assuming the rights to its experimental non-opioid painkiller, STC-004.
From Barron's ● Jun. 16, 2026
One of the most important advances against it came not from a new drug but a repurposed 19th-century painkiller.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 13, 2026
Although epibatidine has been investigated as a painkiller and for relief from painful inflammatory lung conditions, it is not used clinically because of its toxicity.
From BBC ● Feb. 15, 2026
He previously wrote about Samsung from Seoul, but in prior stints at the Journal's New York, Atlanta and Chicago offices, he covered Wall Street's biggest buyers, painkiller addiction, airlines and food.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 31, 2026
“Yeah, but there’s nothing in the first aid kit that’s going to fix a tooth. I could use a painkiller, but that’s the least of our worries.”
From "Storm Runners" by Roland Smith
Josh said the GP "found nothing wrong", prescribing more painkillers and referring him to an optician, where again no issue was found.
From BBC ● Jul. 28, 2026
In Pasadena, volunteers at the restaurant Chamo Venezuelan Cuisine collected supplies, issuing a special plea for bandages, gauze, painkillers and other over-the-counter medicines.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 29, 2026
The deal includes 4E’s pipeline of oral MNK inhibitors, an emerging class of non-opioid painkillers that target a biological pathway within a patient’s nerve endings to stop the generation of pain signals.
From Barron's ● Jun. 16, 2026
After bed rest and painkillers, McClain seemed to get reckless, the people who knew him said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 7, 2026
“You woke up once, but you fell back asleep. Dr. Han said the painkillers would knock you out, so I guess they did the job.”
From "Internment" by Samira Ahmed
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
