antidote
Americannoun
-
antidotes
plural
-
a medicine or other remedy for counteracting the effects of poison, disease, etc.
-
something that prevents or counteracts injurious or unwanted effects.
Good jobs are the best antidote to teenage crime.
verb (used with object)
noun
-
med a drug or agent that counteracts or neutralizes the effects of a poison
-
anything that counteracts or relieves a harmful or unwanted condition; remedy
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of antidote
1400–50; late Middle English (< Middle French ) < Latin antidotum < Greek antídoton something given against (i.e., for counteracting), equivalent to anti- anti- + dotón neuter of dotós given, verbid of didónai to give; akin to datum
Compare meaning
How does antidote compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:
Explanation
An antidote is a remedy that relieves. So if you get headaches from long bus rides, it's best to travel equipped with the key pain alleviating antidotes: Tylenol, lots of water and soothing music. A noun that comes all the way to us from the ancient Greek word antidoton, which means “given as a remedy,” an antidote counteracts or relieves the negative effects of something. You can find antidotes to poison, anxiety, sadness or even a bad day. People tend to think of medicinal cures when they hear the word antidote, but things like meditation, sleep, green tea, exercise or a good hug can all have positive, antidotal affects.
Vocabulary lists containing antidote
Power Prefix: Anti
Looking to grow your vocabulary? Check out this interactive, curated word list from our team of English language specialists at Vocabulary.com – one of over 17,000 lists we've built to help learners worldwide!
Commonly Confused Words, List 1
Interested in learning more words like this one? Our team at Vocabulary.com has got you covered! You can review flashcards, quiz yourself, practice spelling, and more – and it's all completely free to use!
Four Power Prefixes: anti-, con-, inter-, and uni-.
Want to remember this word for good? Start your learning journey today with our library of interactive, themed word lists built by the experts at Vocabulary.com – we'll help you make the most of your study time!
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:
The series is the couple’s prescribed antidote to the social media doomscrolling they call “internet indigestion.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 6, 2026
In recent years, AEW has pitched itself as an antidote to the WWE, but its roster is also almost entirely composed of independent contractors.
From Salon ● Oct. 2, 2026
The Treasury secretary makes the argument that strong economic expansion is the antidote to climbing out of the deep debt hole.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 15, 2026
But Nigel Benn believes he has mapped out the exact antidote to Garcia's firepower.
From BBC ● Sep. 11, 2026
We both appreciate simplicity, and if we are sometimes bored—well, boredom is a pleasing antidote to fear.
From "Rebecca" by Daphne du Maurier
For the past five years, The Liana Trust has been studying venoms from species beyond the big four to develop antidotes to them.
From BBC ● Feb. 1, 2026
This consensus is one of the strongest antidotes to civil conflict.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 1, 2025
Miller’s view is up close and personal, providing the reader with private antidotes while examining her poems and correlating them to geopolitical issues.
From Salon ● Oct. 30, 2025
For a decade, we were harried Los Angeles co-parents, entwined by conversations involving camp sign-ups, parent/teacher conferences, pediatrician appointments, dividing spring break weeks and the antidotes of two troublesome felines.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 6, 2025
Professor Snape was forcing them to research antidotes.
From "Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire" by J. K. Rowling
Poisons of an alkaline nature, such as lye, washing soda, ammonia, etc., are antidoted with vinegar or lemon juice, followed by soothing drinks or sweet oil.
From The Mother and Her Child by William S. Sadler
Remember that carbolic acid is not an acid, and is not antidoted with alkalines.
From The Mother and Her Child by William S. Sadler
In this and some other respects Emerson is well antidoted by Carlyle, who lays the stress on the opposite qualities, and charges his hero to hold his tongue.
From Birds and Poets : with Other Papers by John Burroughs
But hitherto your admirable character has antidoted the poison; the detractor is despised, and every one's indignation raised against him.
From Clarissa Harlowe; or the history of a young lady — Volume 3 by Samuel Richardson
As civilization advances the tendency is for the average of life to lengthen, provided life does not grow so complex that knowledge is antidoted by too great artificiality.
From Maintaining Health Formerly Health and Efficiency by R. L. Alsaker
Mrs. Bloomer replied to Mr. Floyd through the same paper, meeting and refuting every objection, thus in a measure antidoting the poisonous influence of the senator's pronunciamento.
From History of Woman Suffrage, Volume III by Elizabeth Cady Stanton
Ordinary quick-lime, or even plaster from the walls of the house, may be stirred up in water and administered to the sufferer, as both have a distinct value in antidoting the effects of this poison.
From Health on the Farm A Manual of Rural Sanitation and Hygiene by H. F. (Henry Fauntleroy) Harris
It is no anti-psoric, nor is it capable of antidoting the three miasms, or of inflicting medicinal diseases for life.
From Apis Mellifica or, The Poison of the Honey-Bee, Considered as a Therapeutic Agent by C. W. Wolf
The mother is constantly antidoting and neutralizing the child's little troubles and discords by giving the opposite thought and applying the love-elixir.
From Pushing to the Front by Orison Swett Marden
Hunters, warriors, and lovers have occasion to call upon him, and sometimes antidoting charms are sought, when the evil effects of an enemy’s work are to be counteracted.
From The Mide'wiwin or "Grand Medicine Society" of the Ojibwa Seventh Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1885-1886, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1891, pages 143-300 by Walter James Hoffman
Random Word
Spin the wheel and learn a new word!
Get a wordDefinitions 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.
