antidepressant
Americanadjective
noun
noun
adjective
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of antidepressant
First recorded in 1960–65; anti- + depressant
Explanation
An antidepressant is a drug used to treat depression. Unfortunately, many antidepressants have unwanted side effects. Depression is a form of extreme sadness, when you're so sad that it impairs your ability to function. Words starting with anti are the opposite or go against other things. Antidepressants, then, are drugs that fight depression. If you’re depressed, a doctor can prescribe an antidepressant such as Prozac or Zoloft. Antidepressants can improve your mood, but they often have side effects such as weight gain or headaches.
Vocabulary lists containing antidepressant
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:
Creatine may also influence dopamine and serotonin, two neurotransmitters that play important roles in mood regulation and are targeted by many antidepressant medications.
From Science Daily ● Jun. 30, 2026
Named after the antidepressant medication, the song tackles mental health and masculinity.
From BBC ● Jun. 13, 2026
“Our findings do not provide strong evidence that prenatal antidepressant exposure causes neurodevelopmental disorders.”
From Los Angeles Times ● May 27, 2026
These responses are necessary to educate the public about why antidepressant use is so common.
From Salon ● May 18, 2026
They’ve upped his antidepressant, which doesn’t seem to make him any less depressed, but helps him to forget that he is.
From "Challenger Deep" by Neal Shusterman
She is now getting divorced and taking antidepressants.
From BBC ● Jul. 24, 2026
A doctor prescribed him antidepressants and antianxiety medication, he said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 29, 2026
In the small pilot study, researchers tested whether tocilizumab, a drug commonly prescribed for inflammatory conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis, could ease depression symptoms in patients who had not improved with standard antidepressants.
From Science Daily ● May 28, 2026
Loneliness, isolation from family, and depression can be particularly devastating for the elderly, and antidepressants only go so far.
From Barron's ● May 21, 2026
They’d brought her to a shelter, where she’d been showered, fed, prescribed antidepressants, and released three weeks later.
From "Little Fires Everywhere" by Celeste Ng
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.
