sulfa

American  

[suhl-fuh] / ˈsʌl fə /

adjective

1. related chemically to sulfanilamide.

2. pertaining to, consisting of, or involving a sulfa drug or drugs.

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noun

1. sulfa drug.

Etymology

Origin of sulfa

First recorded in 1935–40; short for sulfanilamide

Example Sentences

In Buffalo, New York, a different AI tool misheard Dr. Lauren Bruckner when she told a teenage cancer patient it was a good thing she didn’t have an allergy to sulfa drugs.

From Seattle Times

“Well, FYI, I’m allergic to sulfa, so if there’s sulfa in that gel I might explode. But don’t be afraid. If you were, that is.”

From Literature

The Times hailed the drug’s “humanitarian and social significance,” and Time magazine compared Thorazine to the “germ-killing sulfas,” groundbreaking drugs developed in the 1930s and 1940s to fight off bacterial infections.

From New York Times

Discovered by German scientists in the 1930s, sulfa drugs had severe side effects, and researchers were motivated to find an alternative.

From Washington Post

This is also true of multiple oral antibiotics in the class known as sulfa drugs.

From Scientific American