stilbesterol

1. 1.

   synthetic nonsteroid with the properties of estrogen; formerly used to treat menstrual problems but was found to be associated with vaginal cancers in the daughters of women so treated during pregnancy

   SynonymsdiethylstilbesterolDES

   Broadernonsteroid

Other forms of stilbesterol

plural

stilbesterols·

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 stilbesterol

What does stilbesterol mean?

stilbesterol means "synthetic nonsteroid with the properties of estrogen; formerly used to treat menstrual problems but was found to be associated with vaginal cancers in the daughters of women so treated during pregnancy".

How many syllables are in stilbesterol?

stilbesterol has 4 syllables: stil-be-ste-rol. The stress falls on "be".

What is another word for stilbesterol?

Close synonyms include diethylstilbesterol, DES. 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 stilbesterol a common word?

stilbesterol is banded "Rare" — specialist or archaic — most readers will not have met it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.