Word.ws English Dictionary

medetomidine

medetomidine noun: a synthetic drug used in veterinary and human medicine as both a surgical anesthetic and analgesic, molecular formula C₁₃H₁₆N₂; it is also used as an adulterant of street drugs.

Noun

medetomidine (uncountable)

  1. A synthetic drug used in veterinary and human medicine as both a surgical anesthetic and analgesic, molecular formula C₁₃H₁₆N₂; it is also used as an adulterant of street drugs.
    • Mice were anaesthetized with a mixture of fentanyl (0.05 mg kg -1 ), midazolam (5.0 mg kg -1 ) and medetomidine (0.5 mg kg -1 ).2008 November 12, Sonja B. Hofer, Thomas D. Mrsic-Flogel, Tobias Bonhoeffer, Mark Hübener, “Experience leaves a lasting structural trace in cortical circuits”, in Nature, volume 457, number 7227, →DOI
    • A new drug has been saturating the fentanyl supply in Philadelphia and moving to other cities throughout the East and Midwestern United States: medetomidine, a powerful veterinary sedative that causes almost instantaneous blackouts and, if not used every few hours, brings on life-threatening...2025 December 15, Jan Hoffman, “A Powerful New Drug Is Creating a 'Withdrawal Crisis' in Philadelphia. Medetomidine, a veterinary sedative, mixed into fentanyl has sent thousands to hospitals, not...

Examples of medetomidine in a sentence

  • Since the middle of last year, Philadelphia’s hospitals have been strained by patients coming in with what doctors have identified as medetomidine withdrawal.2025 December 15, Jan Hoffman, “A Powerful New Drug Is Creating a 'Withdrawal Crisis' in Philadelphia. Medetomidine, a veterinary sedative...
  • For the past 18 months, there has been a new drug in circulation, the veterinary sedative medetomidine, also known as “rhino tranq”.2025 December 22, Mattha Busby, “‘It’s made things worse for everyone’: Philadelphia grapples with rise of new street drug. Medetomidine...

Words formed from medetomidine

Questions about medetomidine

What does medetomidine mean?
Medetomidine means a synthetic drug used in veterinary and human medicine as both a surgical anesthetic and analgesic, molecular formula C₁₃H₁₆N₂; it is also used as an adulterant of street drugs.
How do you use medetomidine in a sentence?
Since the middle of last year, Philadelphia’s hospitals have been strained by patients coming in with what doctors have identified as medetomidine withdrawal.
What part of speech is medetomidine?
Medetomidine is a noun.

Words near medetomidine in the dictionary

  1. Medero
  2. Mederos
  3. Meders
  4. Medes
  5. medetomidin
  6. medetomidine
  7. medetomizine
  8. medevac
  9. medevaced
  10. medevacing
  11. medevacked

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: medetomidine (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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