over-the-counter

1. 1.

   purchasable without a doctor's prescription

   “nonprescription drugs”

   “an over-the-counter cold remedy”

   Synonymsnonprescription

   medicine

2. 2.

   (of securities) not traded on a stock exchange

   “over-the-counter stocks”

   Synonymsotc

   Similarunlisted

Questions about over-the-counter

What does over-the-counter mean?

over-the-counter means "purchasable without a doctor's prescription". That is the primary sense; the word has 2 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in over-the-counter?

over-the-counter has 5 syllables: o-ver--the--coun-ter. The stress falls on "the-".

What is another word for over-the-counter?

Close synonyms include nonprescription, otc. 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 over-the-counter a common word?

over-the-counter 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.