Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
cephalothin

cephalothin

1 8.4
A medicine given by injection that kills harmful germs and treats infections
  • noun
  • /ˌsɛfəˈloʊθɪn/
  • Specialized
: cefalotina
  • The laboratory tested the bacteria's sensitivity to cephalothin before starting treatment.

Examples

  • The doctor prescribed cephalothin to treat the patient’s bacterial infection.

  • Among 54 isolates with cephalothin resistance, 49 (90.7 percent) were also resistant to ampicillin, but only 15.9 percent of ampicillin-resistant E. coli were resistant to cephalothin.

    Academic text (2008)

  • Doctors often use cephalothin against infections caused by certain strains of bacteria.

Surface Forms

cephalothin singular
cephalothins plural

Etymology

Cephalothin comes from the drug family name cephalosporin, which was named after a fungus and the Greek root cephalo- meaning 'head'. So Cephalothin is an antibiotic in the cephalosporin group, and its name links it to that family used to fight bacterial infections.