Meaning & use
anesthetic
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Meanings
nouncountable or uncountablemedical
A drug or gas that stops you feeling pain, either in one part of the body or by putting you to sleep completely.
Grammar: Say under anesthetic (uncountable) or a local anesthetic (countable).
Patterns
- under anesthetic
- a local anesthetic
- a general anesthetic
The dentist gave me a local anesthetic before pulling the tooth.
She was under general anesthetic for almost three hours.
The nurse explained how the anesthetic would wear off after the operation.
adjectivebefore a nounmedicaltechnical
Causing loss of feeling or pain, or relating to the use of such drugs.
Grammar: It usually comes before a noun: an anesthetic gas.
Patterns
- an anesthetic effect
- anesthetic gas
The anesthetic properties of the gas made the patient drowsy within seconds.
Ether was once widely used for its anesthetic effect.
The team monitored the anesthetic dose carefully throughout the surgery.
Word forms
| plural | anesthetics |
|---|
Common combinations
- a local anesthetic
- The doctor numbed my arm with a local anesthetic.
- a general anesthetic
- Children usually need a general anesthetic for this procedure.
- under anesthetic
- He was still under anesthetic when his family arrived.
- administer an anesthetic
- A specialist administers the anesthetic before surgery.
- the anesthetic wears off
- My lip felt strange until the anesthetic wore off.
Synonyms and how they differ
- painkiller
- A painkiller reduces pain you already feel, while an anesthetic blocks feeling beforehand, often during a procedure.
- analgesic
- Analgesic is the technical term for a drug that relieves pain without removing consciousness or all sensation, so it is weaker than a full anesthetic.
- sedative
- A sedative calms you or makes you sleepy but does not necessarily remove pain.
Word family
- anesthesia noun
- the state or process of being without feeling
- anesthetist noun
- a doctor or nurse who gives anesthetics
- anesthesiologist noun
- an American doctor specializing in anesthesia
- anesthetize verb
- to make someone unable to feel pain
Commonly confused: anesthetic or aesthetic?
anesthetic vs aesthetic
Aesthetic is about beauty and appearance, and is pronounced with a different second syllable; it has nothing to do with medicine.
Practice
The dentist numbed my gum with a ____ before drilling.
Choose one answer.
A local anesthetic numbs one small area. A sedative makes you calm or sleepy but does not numb the gum, so it does not fit.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “anesthetic”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.