pharmaceutical
Americanadjective
noun
-
pharmaceuticals
plural
adjective
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
-
nonpharmaceuticadjective
-
nonpharmaceuticaladjective
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nonpharmaceuticallyadverb
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pharmaceuticallyadverb
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of pharmaceutical
First recorded in 1640–50; pharmaceutic(s) + -al 1
Explanation
A pharmaceutical is any kind of drug used for medicinal purposes, like cough syrup or sleeping pills. You may have heard of a pharmacy, which is a place where you can buy medicinal drugs, or a pharmacist, which is a person who prepares those drugs. In general, a pharmaceutical is anything related to pharmacies or pharmacists, though it especially refers to the kinds of medicines that they sell. Pharmaceuticals are often contrasted with what are called recreational drugs, which are the illegal kind that are generally used for entertainment purposes rather than to help heal the body.
Vocabulary lists containing pharmaceutical
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Pharmacy Words
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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:
Li, the company's vice president, claimed these were based on standards used in the pharmaceutical industry.
From Barron's ● Aug. 14, 2026
Running a pharmaceutical company under our dysfunctional system is a high-wire act that requires balancing the high-risk, high-cost business of drug discovery against the dubious math of drug pricing.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 13, 2026
Computer programming, advertising and the pharmaceutical industry were areas of strength, the ONS said.
From BBC ● Aug. 13, 2026
The pharmaceutical conglomerate is claiming the entities sell retatrutide, a GLP-1 drug that is still in trials and not yet approved by the Food and Drug Administration.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 12, 2026
Christoph Lengauer is Global Head of Oncology Drug Discovery at sanofi-aventis, one of the biggest pharmaceutical companies in the world.
From "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" by Rebecca Skloot
"He had been tried on cocktails of anti-epileptic pharmaceuticals and they just weren't working" Charlotte said.
From BBC ● Aug. 17, 2026
McNerney said the 10 represented “our highest-conviction names,” with that group concentrated in the pharmaceuticals and banking industries.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 12, 2026
Landlocked Switzerland’s economy is highly dependent on exports, including its luxury watches, pharmaceuticals and high-tech machinery.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 24, 2026
Danish pharmaceuticals heavyweight Novo Nordisk said Tuesday it is suing its arch US rival, Eli Lilly, over "false and materially misleading" adverts for their competing weight-loss and anti-diabetes treatments.
From Barron's ● Jul. 21, 2026
Tony’s business interests are diverse: waste management, luxury auto exports, pharmaceuticals, etc.
From "Woe Is I" by Patricia T. O'Conner
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.
