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antiviral drug

antiviral drug

4 3.7
A medicine that stops viruses from growing in the body
  • noun
  • /ˌæntiˈvaɪrəl drʌg/
  • Specialized
translation icon : medicamento antiviral
  • The antiviral drugs tested included FDA-approved medications and investigational antiviral agents.
  • pharmacies dispense antiviral drugs
  • dispense antiviral drugs
  • antiviral drug access

Well, again, let's talk about this new antiviral drug called molnupiravir.

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Examples

  • Research is ongoing to develop an antiviral drug that effectively targets the influenza virus.

  • Animal models have been used to evaluate antiviral drugs.

    Academic text (1994)
  • The control group consisted of 270 mothers who did not receive any antiviral drugs.

    Blog text (2)
  • Influenza outbreaks are difficult to control without the use of vaccines and antiviral drugs.

    Academic text (2015)
  • At the CDC's recommendation, everyone on the project begins taking rimantadine, an antiviral drug.

    Academic text (1998)
  • Further, Lassa can be cured with proper use of the antiviral drug ribavirin.

    Academic text (1998)
  • During future pandemics, timely and effective deployment of antiviral drugs from the SNS and state cache might be essential for reducing early illness and death (19).

    Academic text (2015)
  • The doctor prescribed an antiviral drug to help treat the patient's viral infection.

  • Many people rely on antiviral drugs to manage their symptoms during a viral outbreak.

Synonyms

antiviral
vsantiviral drug
  • Specialized
8 3.8

A medicine that stops viruses from growing or making more copies

is a medication used specifically to stop replication in infected people
antiviral agent
vsantiviral drug
  • Specialized
1 3.5

A substance like a medicine that stops a virus growing or kills it

focuses on preventing virus development or replication rather than destruction

How Effective

antiviral drug
  • Specialized
4 3.7
decongestant
8 3.3
cold treatment
  • Specialized
3.6

Surface Forms

Morphology

antiviral + drug

The noun phrase is fully compositional: 'antiviral' means virus-blocking and 'drug' means a medicine, so a learner who knows both constituents can infer it is a medicine that treats or inhibits viruses. The ADJ+NOUN structure is a regular, cross-linguistically common composition and there is no idiomatic shift, making the meaning transparent to B1 learners.

Etymology

Antiviral drug comes from anti meaning 'against' and viral meaning 'virus'. Think of the drug as tiny soldiers that stop viruses from making more copies, so the phrase means 'a medicine that stops or slows a virus'.