antiretroviral
antiretroviral adjective: that combats infection by retroviruses.
Adjective
antiretroviral (comparative more antiretroviral, superlative most antiretroviral)
- That combats infection by retroviruses.
- Begun in 2003 and covering some 50 countries, Pepfar has saved the lives of an estimated 13m people living with HIV-Aids, mostly in Africa, by providing them with antiretroviral drugs.2019 July 17, David Pilling, “Why George W Bush is Africa’s favourite US president”, in Financial Times
Noun
antiretroviral (plural antiretrovirals)
- An agent that combats retroviruses.
- Inequality, research shows, [is why] we still see Aids-related deaths in an era when we have all the antiretrovirals, HIV prevention pills, vaginal rings, injections and harm-reduction plans needed to end the pandemic.2023 August 7, Mia Malan, “A pandemic is not just a disease – it’s a political, social and economic crisis fuelled by inequality”, in The Guardian
Forms of antiretroviral
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | more antiretroviral |
| superlative | most antiretroviral |
| Noun | |
| plural | antiretrovirals |
Origin of antiretroviral
From anti- + retroviral.
Words formed from antiretroviral
Questions about antiretroviral
- What does antiretroviral mean?
- Antiretroviral means that combats infection by retroviruses.
- What part of speech is antiretroviral?
- Antiretroviral can be an adjective or a noun.
Words near antiretroviral in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: antiretroviral (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Cite this entry: “antiretroviral.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/antiretroviral. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.