pharmacist
Americannoun
-
pharmacists
plural
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of pharmacist
First recorded in 1825–35; pharmac(y) + -ist
Explanation
When you're sick and need prescription medication, it's a pharmacist who prepares it for you, answers your questions about it, and sells it to you. You can also ask your pharmacist to recommend the best over-the-counter cough drops. If you decide to be a pharmacist, you'll need to study pharmacy, a field of science that's all about making and dispensing safe medicine that works the way it's supposed to. Pharmacists take a lot of chemistry classes to understand how drugs work, and they also study human anatomy and physiology to learn about the way people's bodies react to medicine. In some places, your pharmacist can also give you vaccinations.
Vocabulary lists containing pharmacist
Florida's B.E.S.T. Common Suffixes: -ist
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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:
But once she and her girlfriends were inside, they took their time shopping and asking for recommendations from the pharmacist.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 14, 2026
Supplying prescription-only medicines is an offence under the Human Medicines Regulations 2012 unless you are an "appropriate practitioner" such as a doctor or a pharmacist.
From BBC ● Aug. 4, 2026
Panel member Elizabeth Rebello, a pharmacist and anesthesiologist, told the committee she had voted no "because of the lack of efficacy data" and "safety concerns."
From Barron's ● Jul. 23, 2026
Alec Ginsberg, a fourth-generation pharmacist who owns C.O.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 23, 2026
You needed medicine and weren’t well enough to get to the pharmacist?
From "The Marrow Thieves" by Cherie Dimaline
With a seeming majority of opticians and pharmacists out of stock, pastry chef Arno Dossogne, 37, struck gold at a small opticians' store that received a last-minute shipment Monday afternoon.
From Barron's ● Aug. 11, 2026
"Many pharmacists will find themselves in a situation where they're really thinking about whether they can keep their heads above the water," she told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.
From BBC ● May 29, 2026
In many states, for example, pharmacists now prescribe medications such as contraceptives and flu treatments.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 16, 2026
“I feel like our home is a love letter to my upbringing,” she says, referring to her parents, who were both pharmacists.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 21, 2026
They were grouped by occupation and wore identifying clothing—doctors, nurses, farmers, pharmacists, housemakers, actresses, librarians, college students in academic gowns.
From "1919 The Year That Changed America" by Martin W. Sandler
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.
