Meaning & use
Seconal
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Meaning
proper nounpropermedical
The trade name of a fast-acting barbiturate drug, secobarbital, that was once commonly given to help people sleep or calm down.
Grammar: Capitalized because it is a brand name: she was prescribed Seconal.
Patterns
- prescribe Seconal for something
- take Seconal
In the 1950s, doctors often gave Seconal to patients who could not sleep.
The novel's heroine keeps a bottle of Seconal beside her bed.
Seconal is rarely prescribed now because safer sleep medicines exist.
Common combinations
- a prescription for Seconal
- Her doctor wrote a prescription for Seconal in 1962.
- an overdose of Seconal
- The biography describes an overdose of Seconal that nearly killed him.
- a bottle of Seconal
- A bottle of Seconal was found in the hotel drawer.
- Seconal capsules
- The old pharmacy still displayed a box of Seconal capsules as a curiosity.
Synonyms and how they differ
- secobarbital
- This is the generic drug name, whereas Seconal is the brand, so medical writing prefers secobarbital and stories or histories often say Seconal.
- barbiturate
- This names the whole drug class rather than one product, so it is broader than Seconal.
- sedative
- This describes what the drug does in general and says nothing about a specific brand or chemical.
Word family
- barbiturate noun
- the class of sedative drugs that includes Seconal
- sedative noun
- any drug that calms or induces sleep
- sedation noun
- the state of being calmed by such a drug
Commonly confused: Seconal or Seconde?
Seconal vs Seconde
This is not a drug at all; it is a fencing position and a French word for second, so it should not be mixed up with the capsule brand.
Practice
Why is Seconal written with a capital S?
Choose one answer.
Seconal is a trade name, so it is capitalized like other brands. It is not a place or a profession, and it is capitalized even in the middle of a sentence.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “Seconal”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.