pharmacist
Americannoun
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:
Panel member Elizabeth Rebello, a pharmacist and anaesthesiologist, told the committee she had voted no on BPC-157 "because of the lack of efficacy data" and "safety concerns", Reuters news agency reported.
From BBC ● Jul. 24, 2026
David Pope, a pharmacist who voted affirmatively for other peptides, voted “no” on this one, citing a complex regimen and “potentially dangerous downstream consequences.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 24, 2026
Alec Ginsberg, a fourth-generation pharmacist who owns C.O.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 23, 2026
Majid, a 35-year-old pharmacist in Tehran, said he was "deeply worried" by the attacks and their knock-on effects on daily life for Iranians already facing economic hardship.
From Barron's ● Jun. 11, 2026
Mr. Levinsohn, a little Jewish pharmacist and chemist, is working for Mr. Kugler in the kitchen.
From "The Diary of a Young Girl" by Anne Frank
"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
As part of the Pharmacy First scheme, pharmacists can currently prescribe medication for a sore throat, earache, sinusitis, shingles, impetigo, infected bites and urinary tract infections.
From BBC ● May 29, 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
“Medical directors failed to prevent inappropriate use of antipsychotic drugs,” and “nursing home pharmacists failed to identify medical concerns and did not recommend dose reductions.”
From MarketWatch ● Apr. 7, 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.
