Word.ws English Dictionary

laetrile

laetrile noun: a drug, derived from the amygdalin of apricot kernels, once thought capable of destroying cancer cells by the release of cyanide but later banned in the United States by the FDA.

Noun

laetrile (countable and uncountable, plural laetriles)

  1. A drug, derived from the amygdalin of apricot kernels, once thought capable of destroying cancer cells by the release of cyanide but later banned in the United States by the FDA.
    Synonyms:
    vitamin B17

Synonyms of laetrile

Forms of laetrile

plurallaetriles

Origin of laetrile

A contraction of l-mandelonitrile, from Ancient Greek ἀμυγδάλη (amugdálē, “almond”) + -o- + nitrile.

Questions about laetrile

What does laetrile mean?
Laetrile means a drug, derived from the amygdalin of apricot kernels, once thought capable of destroying cancer cells by the release of cyanide but later banned in the United States by the FDA.
What part of speech is laetrile?
Laetrile is a noun.
What is the plural of laetrile?
The plural of laetrile is laetriles.

Words near laetrile in the dictionary

  1. laetificating
  2. laetification
  3. Laetitia
  4. laetmogonid
  5. laetmogonids
  6. laetrile
  7. laetriles
  8. laevifonol
  9. laevigate
  10. laevigated
  11. laevigates

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: laetrile (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.

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