Anesthetic

How to spell anesthetic

10 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce anesthetic

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does anesthetic mean?

1. nounA drug or substance that produces a loss of sensation, especially to prevent pain during surgery.
2. adjectiveCausing or relating to a loss of sensation or awareness.

Anesthetic in a sentence

• noun

  The dentist injected a local anesthetic before drilling the tooth.

• adjective

  The cream has a mild anesthetic effect on the skin.

• noun

  The surgeon waited for the anesthetic to take full effect.

• adjective

  The clinic uses an anesthetic spray to numb the area before stitches.

Where does anesthetic come from?

Language of origin: Greek

This word is built from Greek roots: the negative prefix an-, meaning 'without', joined to aisthesis, meaning 'sensation' or 'feeling', so the literal sense is 'without feeling'. The underlying Greek anaisthetos described someone or something that was insensible or numb. The modern medical term was popularised in 1846 by the American physician and writer Oliver Wendell Holmes, who suggested it to name the new state of insensibility produced by ether during surgery. The American spelling drops the 'a' from the Greek diphthong (giving 'an-esthetic'), while British usage keeps it as 'anaesthetic'; that missing letter is the chief spelling trap. The same aisthesis root sits inside 'aesthetic', the word for the appreciation of beauty, which is its close cousin meaning 'relating to perception'.

How the word is built

• an- (without)
• esthe- (from Greek aisthesis: sensation, feeling)
• -tic (adjective/noun suffix)

British and American spelling

Anesthetic is the American spelling. British English spells it anaesthetic.