Word.ws English Dictionary

ketamine

/ˈkɛt.ə.mɪn//ˈkɛt.əˌmin/

ketamine noun: a synthetic compound used as a dissociative anesthetic and analgesic drug and also recreationally as a hallucinogen.

ketamine: a synthetic compound used as a dissociative anesthetic and analgesic drug and also recreationally...
Image: Fuse809, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

ketamine (countable and uncountable, plural ketamines)

  1. A synthetic compound used as a dissociative anesthetic and analgesic drug and also recreationally as a hallucinogen.
    • He was riding high that night, with a brick of Wage's ketamine on its way to Yokohama and the money already in his pocket.1984, William Gibson, Neuromancer (Sprawl; book 1), New York, N.Y.: Ace Books, →ISBN, page 8
    • The chatbot instructed him to give up sleeping pills and an anti-anxiety medication, and to increase his intake of ketamine, a dissociative anesthetic, which ChatGPT described as a “temporary pattern liberator.”2025 June 13, Kashmir Hill, “They Asked ChatGPT Questions. The Answers Sent Them Spiraling.”, in The New York Times, →ISSN

Examples of ketamine in a sentence

  • And just like any other tech company, we're expanding our minds by microdosing ketamine.
  • The nickname is short for "ketamine pods" and refers to how etomidate has similar effects to ketamine.
  • Some have also heard of kitty flipping, or mixing MDMA and ketamine.

All 13 example sentences with ketamine

Synonyms of ketamine

Forms of ketamine

pluralketamines

Origin of ketamine

Blend of ketone + amine. First use appears c. 1966.

Words formed from ketamine

Questions about ketamine

What does ketamine mean?
Ketamine means a synthetic compound used as a dissociative anesthetic and analgesic drug and also recreationally as a hallucinogen.
What part of speech is ketamine?
Ketamine is a noun.
How do you pronounce ketamine?
Ketamine is pronounced /ˈkɛt.ə.mɪn/ (UK).
What is the plural of ketamine?
The plural of ketamine is ketamines.

Words near ketamine in the dictionary

  1. ketamide
  2. ketamides
  3. ketamin
  4. ketamination
  5. ketaminazole
  6. ketamine
  7. ketamines
  8. ketaminol
  9. Ketanji
  10. ketanserin
  11. ketanserine

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: ketamine (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:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-ketamine.wav, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-ketamine.wav.

Cite this entry: “ketamine.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/ketamine. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.