excipient

[ik-sip-ee-uh nt]

noun Pharmacology.

a pharmacologically inert, adhesive substance, as honey, syrup, or gum arabic, used to bind the contents of a pill or tablet.

Origin of excipient

1720–30; < Latin excipient- (stem of excipiēns), present participle of excipere to take out, except, take up, equivalent to ex- ex-¹ + -cipi- (stem of combining form of capere to take) + -ent- -ent

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for excipient

Historical Examples of excipient

Excipient, ek-sip′i-ent, n. a substance mixed with a medicine to give it consistence, or used as a vehicle for its administration.
Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 2 of 4: E-M)
Various
An excipient for medicinal agents when they are to be administered in the form of bolus.
Cooley's Practical Receipts, Volume II
Arnold Cooley
The excipient is unobjectionable, as it is readily soluble in the juices of the stomach.
Cooley's Practical Receipts, Volume II
Arnold Cooley
A pharmaceutical preparation, in which glycerin is employed as the excipient.
Cooley's Cyclopdia of Practical Receipts and Collateral Information in the Arts, Manufactures, Professions, and Trades..., Sixth Edition, Volume I
Arnold Cooley
The sugar of milk, about 10 per cent., or 1⁄2 grain per pill, no doubt is simply an excipient.
The Propaganda for Reform in Proprietary Medicines, Vol. 2 of 2
Various

British Dictionary definitions for excipient

excipient

noun

a substance, such as sugar or gum, used to prepare a drug or drugs in a form suitable for administration

Word Origin for excipient

C18: from Latin excipiēns excepting, from excipere to except

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

excipient in Medicine

excipient

[ĭk-sĭp′ē-ənt]

An inert substance used as a diluent or vehicle for a drug.