disinfectant

1. 1.

   an agent (as heat or radiation or a chemical) that destroys microorganisms that might carry disease

   Synonymsgermicideantimicrobicantimicrobial

   Broaderagent

   Narrowercetrimidesodium hypochlorite

1. 1.

   preventing infection by inhibiting the growth or action of microorganisms

   Synonymsbactericidalgermicidal

   Similarantiseptic

Other forms of disinfectant

plural

disinfectants·

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about disinfectant

What does disinfectant mean?

disinfectant means "an agent (as heat or radiation or a chemical) that destroys microorganisms that might carry disease". That is the primary sense; the word has 2 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in disinfectant?

disinfectant has 4 syllables: di-sin-fec-tant. The stress falls on "fec". In IPA it is /dɪsɪnˈfɛktənt/.

What is another word for disinfectant?

Close synonyms include germicide, antimicrobic, antimicrobial, bactericidal, germicidal. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is disinfectant a common word?

disinfectant is banded "Uncommon" — turns up in careful writing rather than conversation. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.