morning-after pill
12
3.9
- noun
- /ˈmɔrnɪŋˌæftər pɪl/
:
píldora del día después
- The doctor explained that the morning-after pill is most effective within a few days of unprotected sex.
Examples
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Educate yourself about the morning-after pill before making the decision to use it.
Blog text (32) -
What's the point about the morning after pill?
Blog text (22) -
Like, you have the morning after pill now.
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Are you aware that there is a "Morning After" pill?
Blog text (32) -
It's literally called the morning after pill.
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And the morning after pill might interfere with that.
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And I need you to go out and get me the morning-after pill right now.
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What do you think of the morning-after pill?
Blog text (15) -
Any male or female over the age of 17 can purchase Plan B (the "morning after" pill) without a prescription.
Blog text (7) -
Plus, the morning-after pill is really just a high dose of the regular pill.
Blog text (21)
How Effective
- Specialized
9
4.1
12
3.9
Surface Forms
Morphology
morning-after + pill
The compound is directly compositional: a B1 learner who knows 'morning' and 'after' will read 'morning-after pill' as a pill taken the morning after an event, and knowing 'pill' allows them to infer it is a medicinal tablet. Cross-linguistic parallels (e.g. 'píldora del día después') and the common construction modifier + noun make the contraceptive sense (emergency pill taken after unprotected sex) transparently inferable from the parts.
Etymology
The name morning-after pill is literal: morning, after, and pill show when you take it. It was named because people often take it the next morning or soon after unprotected sex, so it means 'a pill taken after sex to prevent pregnancy'.