topical

1. 1.

   pertaining to the surface of a body part

   “a drug for topical (or local) application”

   “a topical anesthesia”

   Similarlocal

   medicine

2. 2.

   of or relating to or arranged by topics

   “a detailed record on both a chronological and a topical basis”
3. 3.

   of interest at the present time

   “a topical reference”

   “a topical and timely study of civil liberty”

   Similarcurrent

Questions about topical

What does topical mean?

topical means "pertaining to the surface of a body part". That is the primary sense; the word has 3 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in topical?

topical has 3 syllables: to-pi-cal. The stress falls on "to". In IPA it is /ˈtɑpəkəl/.

Is topical a common word?

topical 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.