pharmaceutical
Americanadjective
noun
adjective
Other Word Forms
- nonpharmaceutic adjective
- nonpharmaceutical adjective
- nonpharmaceutically adverb
- pharmaceutically adverb
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
This Week in Words: Current Events Vocab for November 12–November 18, 2022
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This Week in Words: Current Events Vocab for May 11–May 17, 2025
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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.
Many observers have long argued that pharmaceutical companies devote disproportionate resources to variations of their top-selling drugs with limited incremental benefits, rather than pursuing entirely new treatments.
From MarketWatch • Apr. 15, 2026
J&J’s pharmaceutical unit generated a majority of the company’s sales and growth, as it has generally done for years.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 14, 2026
The Franklin fund, with top holdings in several global energy, natural resources, pharmaceutical and consumer companies such as Shell, Suncor, Novartis and Nestlé, is the notable exception.
From Barron's • Apr. 13, 2026
Two additional clinical trials funded by pharmaceutical companies showed no difference between carriers and non-carriers, although these studies used longer-acting GLP-1 drugs.
From Science Daily • Apr. 12, 2026
There were the Picketts, Nelson, who’d played tackle for Georgia Tech and now worked for Parke-Davis, the pharmaceutical company, and his wife, Bonnie, who was always reading the miraculous tales in Guideposts.
From "Middlesex: A Novel" by Jeffrey Eugenides
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.
